Protect Hindus in Pakistan: Daily

Islamabad, July 20: A leading Pakistani newspaper on Thursday urged the government to provide protection to Hindus in the background of increasing cases of forcible conversion to Islam. The Dawn said in an editorial that the part of the Thar desert that lies within Pakistan had long been a bastion of commul harmony. “Given there is near parity between the Hindu and Muslim populations in the area, that peaceful coexistence has been an example for other Pakistanis to emulate,” it said. “However, there have been indications for a while now that Thar’s benign social ethos is undergoing a change, a change that bodes ill for the future of those who call it home and one that may well have wider repercussions for the rest of the country.” The Dawn said an investigative report about forced conversions of Hindus it carried detailed how “certain mullahs and feudals are exploiting poverty and class distinctions to put Thar’s Hindu community under unprecedented pressure... “The spread of the madrassah culture has led to a wave of fundamentalism in which conversion to Islam, whether by force or otherwise, has become a means to an end. (IANS)