Pakistan: Hundreds of gunmen raid village in Sindh, abduct women

Sukkur [Pakistan], July 23 (ANI): In a terrible occurrence on Friday, hundreds of armed men attacked a village nearby Sukkur in Sindh, kidnapped two women and a child, and killed at least two men. This is only the latest in a long line of atrocities committed against the people of Sindh in Pakistan, The Express Tribune reported.

The Express Tribune saw the assailants, who were apparently carrying modern weaponry, riding motorcycles past the Sangi police station and heading into the village of Nirch in broad daylight.
Abdul Rahim Kalhoro, an elder of the village, recounted the harrowing events, stating, “They attacked our houses and killed two of our young men.”

He further revealed that the attackers also abducted two women and a young girl, leaving at least three other people injured, The Express Tribune reported.

In response to the attack, the police launched an operation in the Kacha area along the Indus River, claiming to have successfully rescued the abducted women and the girl. However, sources indicated that no arrests were made during the operation, raising questions about the efficacy of law enforcement’s response.

Villagers have expressed frustration and disappointment with the police’s inability to protect them. They said that approximately 400 armed men reportedly passed by four police stations, several security pickets, and even the National Highway with impunity, The Express Tribune reported.

The villagers filmed the attack and shared the footage on social media.

The motive behind the attack appears to be linked to an incident a day before when a girl from the village eloped with a man from a neighbouring village.

“We had assured the Mahar tribe that the girl will be brought back within three days. We also assured them that a fine will also be paid,” Abdul Rahim Kalhoro, an elder of the village said.

The situation has left the local residents in distress, and they are now calling upon the Sindh government and law enforcement agencies to swiftly apprehend the culprits responsible for the brazen attack, The Express Tribune reported.

“We are poor and helpless people. It seems that people like [us] have no right to live here,” Kalhoro lamented.

Despite attempts to reach the concerned senior police officials, SSP Sukkur Sanghar Malik and DIG Sukkur Javed Jiskani have not yet responded to inquiries about the incident.

Earlier on Saturday, while speaking to ANI, the chairperson of the World Sindhi Congress Rubina Greenwood accused the Pakistani establishment of not protecting minorities and allowing them to be systematically targeted.

Atrocities against ethnic minorities in Pakistan have risen in the recent past, according to reports.

In a recent incident that shook the world, a 150-year-old Mari Mata temple in Karachi was razed to the ground. The temple had been the target of land grabbers and developers for years, according to reports.

Another temple in the Kashmore area of the country’s Sindh province was attacked on the same day with rocket launchers, reports said.

According to Greenwood, minorities in Pakistan are purportedly subjected to inhumane political and public attitudes. They are often at the receiving end of “policy exclusivity and mob aggression”.

“Some say Pakistan has become a rabid fundamentalist state where the government is accused of both omission and commission,” she said.

Greenwood added, “Unfortunately, the reality is that yes Pakistan has become very, radical towards its minority. I don’t whether people over the 70 years of systematic brainwashing of our people and the education system, the culture has actually changed the outlook of the country, and the outlook of the people as well. But we need to fundamentally understand that, the whole political thinking and the institutionalization of Pakistan as well.”

She added, “Pakistan was built as a Puritan state. Puritan state means that a state can actually use religion to control the people, the mindset, the growth and the whole thinking about the thinking of the people can be controlled by the religion. They have changed the whole county’s mindset through the education system and by their cultural mindset. The people of Sindh, Punjab are secular. They are not hostile people. It is the 70 years of institutionalisation that has had an impact on the mindset of the people.”

“They want to create this instability in Sindh because it is one of the most secular provinces in Pakistan,” she added.

On the impact of propaganda tools on people, Greenwood said, “Sindh has a secular culture and they have a strong sentiment of nationhood, considering Sindhis as one nation. We have Sindhi Hindus, Sindhi Jains, Sindhi Sikhs and Sindhi Muslims. So, if they create religious rivalry and religious discrimination they can actually control Sindh and suppress Sindh’s nationalist sentiment”.