KARACHI: The parents of a Hindu girl who went missing in Pakistan’s Sindh province in 2021 have protested in Karachi city demanding the recovery of the girl following her “mysterious” disappearance.
Priya Kumari was seven years old when she mysteriously disappeared on August 19, 2021, while distributing sherbet at a Muharram Ashura procession near her home in Sangral, a small town near Sukkur in Sindh province in southern Pakistan.
Grieving and exhausted, his parents Raj Kumar Pal and his wife Veena Kumari staged a protest at the famous Teen Talwar landmark in Karachi’s Clifton area on Friday to remind people that their daughter is yet to be found.
“The police are again searching for our daughter and have assured us that she will be found soon,” Raj said.
The parents called off their protest after Sindh Interior Minister Zia Langrove and Inspector General of Police Javed Odh met them and assured them that a full-fledged Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was working on the case.
Odho said even after the JIT was formed, no witnesses remembered what happened to the girl.
“However, the JIT is working day and night to solve this case and an answer will be available soon,” he said.
It has been three years since Priya went missing, but there are no clues regarding her whereabouts. No witnesses have claimed to have seen her disappearance, despite sizeable crowds during the 2021 Ashura procession.
Sindh has a large Hindu community and Raj said Priya’s disappearance had increased people’s concern and fears for the safety of their daughters and sisters.
Disappearances and abductions of minor, teenage and married Hindu women are not uncommon in many parts of the state, but in most cases, the victims and those involved in the abduction emerge sooner or later and take their case to court.
Hindu community leaders say in most of these cases women and girls are forcibly converted and married off to older men, and police generally tend to support abductors rather than victims’ families.
Official data from last year’s census showed Pakistan’s Hindu population is set to grow from 3.5 million in 2017 to 3.8 million in 2023, making it the Muslim nation’s largest minority community.
Published July 20, 2024 13:31 IST
