The brutalities against minorities continue unabated in the terrorist state of Pakistan as multiple instances of atrocities against minorities especially Hindus and Sikhs have been emerging regularly in recent times. In yet another deplorable act of forced conversion to Islam in the terror state of Pakistan, a young Hindu girl named Kavita Kumari was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. Mian Mithoo, the extremist Muslim cleric and an influential politician that Hindu families dread in Sindh, is believed to be behind the incident.
Mian Mithu is accused of kidnapping and forcing religious conversions of Hindu teenage girls in Pakistan.
In the incident which was reported from Barjhundi in Ghotki area of Sindh province, Pakistan, a thirteen-year-old Kavita Kumari was abducted and allegedly taken to Mian Mithoo, who then forced the Hindu minor to embrace Islam.
Pakistani human rights activist Rahat Austin had taken to Twitter to post a video where the Hindu girl can be sitting next to the extremist Muslim cleric Mian Mithoo, who guides her into embracing Islam.
Kavita Kumari, a 13 Years old, Hindu girl abducted, raped, converted. Tell me if you are a human. if you have a sister or daughter of this poor girl’s age & someone forcefully take her like this? If you were helpless like her family is. Will you still be silent or justify this? https://t.co/RiLqsgmAtA pic.twitter.com/2I3PNqLblY
— Rahat Austin (@johnaustin47) May 12, 2020
Past incidents where Mian Mithoo has been instrumental in converting Hindu underage girls
This is, however, not the first incident where the ‘Mithoo mafia’, as the Mian Mithoo’s goons are commonly referred to, has been instrumental in carrying out abductions and forced conversions of several Hindu underage girls in the area. Prior to this, he was accused of abductions and forceful conversions of one Hindu named Mahek Keswani and two other underage Hindu girls Raveena (13) and Reena (15), who were abducted from the Ghotki in Pakistan’s Sindh on the eve of Holi. The girls were later forcefully converted and married off to older Muslim men.
Similarly, Rinkle Kumari, was abducted and forced to convert to Islam, and marry a young Muslim man named Naveed Shah under his supervision. Rinkle Kumari, the daughter of a local school teacher Nand Laal, was a mere teenager at the time of her abduction. Nand Laal had allegedly fled to Lahore soon after accusing Mian Mithu of the abduction and forced conversion.
Almost all the sordid sagas of the Hindu teenager’s abduction and marriage in Pakistan’s Sindh province is said to be masterminded and supported by Mian Mithu.
The notorious Islamic cleric Mian Mithoo
Mian Abdul Haq, commonly known as Mian Mithoo, belongs to an influential family in the Sindh province and is an influential political and religious figure in Ghotki. He had been elected as a member of the National Assembly from Ghotki in the elections of 2008 on a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ticket. He is also the custodian of a Muslim shrine, Barchundi Sharif.
Mithoo is feared by the local Hindus as they accuse him of kidnapping and forced conversions of Hindu girls. The minority Hindus of the area claim that Mithoo provides protection to those who kidnap underage Hindu girls and forcibly converts them to Islam before marrying them off to their kidnappers. Further, he also wields his political power to influence legal processes in case families of kidnapped girls decide to go to court.
Mian Mithoo, the chief of Bharchundi mosque is accused of systematically carrying out the kidnapping and forced conversions of underage Hindu girls in the area.
Ghotki riots pre-planned by Mithoo to cover up abduction of Hindu girl
Last year, temples belonging to the minority Hindu community were vandalised and violence was unleashed against Hindus in Pakistan’s Ghotki after a principal Notan Das had allegedly made some ‘blasphemous’ remark. The violence had broken out after a student accused the school principal Das of making ‘blasphemous’ remarks.
In a twist to the whole incident, a news report in Pakistani media outlet Naya Daur had stated that the attacks against the Hindu community were pre-planned by the goons of notorious Radical Islamic leader Mian Mithoo.
School principal Notan Das had reportedly saved an abducted Hindu girl by giving refuge to her and the attack against him was an attempt to cover up the crime by Mian Mithoo’s goons.
As of 2016, 117 cases had been registered against the Islamic cleric who is allegedly known to be a close aid of Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan and the Pakistani general Qamar Javed Bajwa. In Pakistan, Hindus have many times reportedly taken to the streets demanding the arrest of Mian Mittoo.
