Police turn blind eye to rampant kidnapping and rape of Hindu girls in Pak’s Sindh province

Karachi, Mar.26 (ANI): A 12-year-old Hindu girl, Nandini, is still missing as police officials have failed to recover her even after four months of her being allegedly picked up by an influential individual of the city.

Officials have no information regarding Nandini’s whereabouts, who was kidnapped in December last year, and the accused named Younis has not been arrested despite the fact that there is a first information report (FIR) registered against him.

It is not an isolated case where Hindu families have been left with little choice than to lament over their fate, with no help in sight from the authorities.

Several Hindu families, which are at the receiving end of the government’s apathy, are awaiting justice for years but there’s no one to listen to their plight.

According to Roshni Research and Development Welfare Organisation (RRDWO), a non-government organisation (NGO), a research has shown in majority of cases involving the minority community, police only provide lip service and do not seriously hunt down the criminals.

The NGO’s President, Muhammad Ali, cited another case of a 17-year-old Hindu girl, who was kidnapped and raped by four men, in January this year. All the four accused were granted pre-arrest bail by a session court.

“Rape is a non-bail able offence in Pakistan and this is against criminal procedure and the law,” The Daily Times quoted Ali, as saying.

Ali said the Asian Human Rights Commission has also expressed its serious concern over the case.

“Instead of giving justice to the victim’s family, the police later arrested the victim’s father on a false offence, and have obstructed attempts by the family to file an FIR and obtain a medical report,” he added.

Ali also disclosed that an ‘illegal’ tribal court had asked the victim girl to marry her rapist and convert to Islam following which the girl had threatened public self-immolation.

“Not arresting the rapists and rather forcing a Hindu girl, who is a rape victim, to convert to Islam and be the wife of the culprit could be double trauma for the victim. It is another form of further victimising a woman,” he said.

Ali also appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to take suo moto notice of the gross human rights violations of the poor and the marginalized minorities in the Sindh province at the hands of police and lower judiciary, who are influenced by the feudal and local elite. (ANI)

Congress, BJP have just six women candidates in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal, April 6 (IANS) Women may comprise 47 percent of Madhya Pradesh’s electorate, but the two main parties together have fielded just six candidates for the 29 Lok Sabha seats – the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) four and the opposition Congress two.

The two parties have also been advocating 33 percent reservation for women in all bodies. But this does not seem to translate into a more equitable distribution of nominations.

The smaller parties are no different. The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has not fielded even one woman. Ditto with the Samajwadi Party.

‘The names of some other women candidates were also in the list but they failed to make the grade when it came to winnability,’ said a senior Congress leader.

So, it could fix on only two women – Rajesh Nandini Singh from Shahdol and Meenakshi Natrajan from Mandsore.

The BJP, which has increased women’s representation in panchayats and civic bodies to 50 percent from 33 percent, could manage four, including two MPs. They are Yashodhara Raje Scindia from Gwalior, Jyoti Dhurve from Betul, Sushma Swaraj from Vidisha and Sumitra Mahajan from Indore.

Said state BJP spokesperson Archana Chitnis: ‘I’m confident that in the near future, the representation would improve further. Apart from representation to women, the party also has to look at the winnability factor.’

Women candidates did not fare well in the November 2008 assembly elections. A total of 221 women candidates entered the poll arena and only 25 could get through. The BJP led the tally with 15 women legislators, followed by the Congress with eight and the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janshakti Party with one each.

Gandhi’s idol worshipped at Orissa temple

ROURKELA (ORISSA): Mahatma Gandhi is revered all over the country, but people at a sleepy little village off Sambalpur town in Orissa remember him
in a very special way – by worshipping his idol in a temple.

The temple at Bhatra village attracts people of all religions and castes who offer their obeisance to the idol of Gandhiji sitting under the Tricolour.

Pramod Kumar, president of the Gandhi temple development committee, said the temple symbolizes communal amity among the people in western Orissa.

”People of all faiths from different parts of Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand come to Gandhi temple which promotes peace and communal harmony,” he said.

The temple’s head priest, Kalia Bagh, a Dalit, said followers of Gandhi read out the teachings and writings of Gandhiji after arati in the morning and evening.

The temple was the brain-child, Abhimanyu Kumar, an ex-MLA. The 85-year-old Kumar recalled, ”We were not allowed entry into temples at the village and elsewhere condemned as we are as untouchables. So in 1971 after I became an MLA the idea of construction of a temple dedicated to the man who abolished untouchability struck me.”

The bronze statue of Gandhi was sculpted by students of the Khalikote Art College in Ganjam district, Kumar said expressing his gratitude to the then revenue minister of Orissa, Brajamohan Mohanty, for granting Rs 5000 towards meeting the cost of the statue.

The local villagers not only offered money, but also lent a hand in the construction and the temple was inaugurated by the then chief minister of Orissa, Nandini Satpathy, with much fanfare on April 11, 1974.

On Gandhi Jayanti, Martyrs Day, Republic Day and Independence Day a large number of followers throng the temple to celebrate. Dalit youths after offering prayers take a vow to “shun violence and liquor”.

”We get peace when we perform prayer in the Gandhi temple chanting Hare-Rama-Hare-Krishna,” said Jitendra Raiguru, a local resident.

With no financial support from either government or any organisation, the management occasionally faces problems in running the temple, but the 150-odd Dalit families of the village see to it that the lamp does not go off.

Gandhi’s idol worshipped at Orissa temple

ROURKELA (ORISSA): Mahatma Gandhi is revered all over the country, but people at a sleepy little village off Sambalpur town in Orissa remember him
in a very special way – by worshipping his idol in a temple.

The temple at Bhatra village attracts people of all religions and castes who offer their obeisance to the idol of Gandhiji sitting under the Tricolour.

Pramod Kumar, president of the Gandhi temple development committee, said the temple symbolizes communal amity among the people in western Orissa.

”People of all faiths from different parts of Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand come to Gandhi temple which promotes peace and communal harmony,” he said.

The temple’s head priest, Kalia Bagh, a Dalit, said followers of Gandhi read out the teachings and writings of Gandhiji after arati in the morning and evening.

The temple was the brain-child, Abhimanyu Kumar, an ex-MLA. The 85-year-old Kumar recalled, ”We were not allowed entry into temples at the village and elsewhere condemned as we are as untouchables. So in 1971 after I became an MLA the idea of construction of a temple dedicated to the man who abolished untouchability struck me.”

The bronze statue of Gandhi was sculpted by students of the Khalikote Art College in Ganjam district, Kumar said expressing his gratitude to the then revenue minister of Orissa, Brajamohan Mohanty, for granting Rs 5000 towards meeting the cost of the statue.

The local villagers not only offered money, but also lent a hand in the construction and the temple was inaugurated by the then chief minister of Orissa, Nandini Satpathy, with much fanfare on April 11, 1974.

On Gandhi Jayanti, Martyrs Day, Republic Day and Independence Day a large number of followers throng the temple to celebrate. Dalit youths after offering prayers take a vow to “shun violence and liquor”.

”We get peace when we perform prayer in the Gandhi temple chanting Hare-Rama-Hare-Krishna,” said Jitendra Raiguru, a local resident.

With no financial support from either government or any organisation, the management occasionally faces problems in running the temple, but the 150-odd Dalit families of the village see to it that the lamp does not go off.