Menu  
Close  
  • Who we are
  • Our work
  • News & Analysis
  • Events
  • Library
Accessibility options
Search the site

Shattered homes and denied death rituals: A Case of Hindu community during COVID

Category: Case Study By: Mahesh Rana

Mahesh Rana

A Hindu man died of Coronavirus and was denied a dignified death  (cremation ritual) by an angry mob in Punjab. Moreover, around 20 houses of Hindus in Punjab were demolished, as a landowner used his influence to bulldoze them despite the court order leaving all homeless during this severe pandemic spread.

Houses of Hindus razed in May

“We were struggling with poverty before the pandemic, in an absence of sufficient food supply and clean drinking water”, informs Ratna Bai, a resident of Yazman Tehsil, Bahawalpur (Punjab). “But to make it worse, a few men used the backing of local authorities to demolish our houses claiming it was the government’s property and now we’re living on the streets without a shelter”, she laments. 

A Muslim registrar, Muhammad Boot lodged a complaint, in which he accused the Hindu community of attempting to sell “state-owned land”. The assistant commissioner of Yazman acted on it and levelled 25 houses to the ground and partially demolished 10. 

Although the land was legally allotted to the Hindu community by the Board of Revenue in 2018 the Hindus were forced out. A respondent who asked for anonymity told that she was dragged out of the house by her hair.

Ratna Bai commented further saying “our houses were demolished despite the restraining order because of a religious bias towards us”. Mr Boota threatened the community members on multiple occasions, which pushed them to file a case petitioning a senior civil judge to issue a restraining order. 

One of the demolished houses in Yazman Tehsil, Bahawalpur, Punjab.

In May 2020, the HRCP received reports that a number of houses belonging to a Hindu community in the township of Yazman district Bahawalpur, were demolished by the local authorities, amid protests by the community members. 

Following an independent fact-finding mission, it was believed by HRCP on strong grounds that a local resident, Muhammad Boot, had used political connections to threaten and intimidate the community to increase his own landholdings and the concerned authorities were complicit. This came as just one of the many incidents involving discrimination as well as the violation of minority rights in a never-ending ordeal.

Death rituals denied in June

A Hindu man, Kaweel Ram, who died of COVID-19 in June, 2020 was denied his death rituals in Daadu, Sindh. As his family was cremating the deceased, an Anti-Hindu mob showed up and showered water to snuff out the fire. They also left the leaflets signed “you cannot do the last sermons here”.

Rajesh Kumar, a 25-year-old Hindu Activist tried to lodge an FIR against a few influential men from a Muslim-majority community who wanted to grab the land of the crematorium. He claimed that the police officials also supported the culprits and refused to register the FIR.  

In these circumstances, Hindu population has no other option but to migrate. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics Hindus made up 0.6 percent of the total population. As the fact goes a majority of them are settled in Sindh. Unfortunately none of the Law Enforcing Agencies (LEAs) have taken any action to protect their temples, crematoriums and graveyards.

Government authorities should take serious and timely measures against this because such discriminatory acts are deterrents for th Hindu community to continue living in Pakistan. Most of the individuals from the marginalized groups are well qualified and add to the brain drain.Every person must have the right to freely practise their religion.

Provincial Governments could constitute religious commissions in each region, vested with decision-making powers so it may look into the matters of religious persecution. This will also help in the representation of minorities’ issues in provincial assemblies and the Parliament.

Related content

Analysis
Vaccine scepticism among religious minorities: Pakistan must adopt a bottom-up approach

In this analysis, Aroon Arthur, Jaffer A. Mirza and Mohsin Ilyas share findings from interviews in Islamabad/Rawalpindi and Lahore in which they find an alarming…

VIEW THIS RESOURCE
Project
Covid-19 and Freedom of Religion or Belief

Since the declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, CREID has adapted its programme of work and responded to redress the increased impact of Covid-19…

VIEW THIS RESOURCE
Analysis
Covid-19: Quetta citizens more critical of local government than of Hazara Shias

In the first of our three part series on the impact of Covid-19 on attitudes towards Hazara Shia in Quetta, Pakistan, Sajjad Hussain and Raheela…

VIEW THIS RESOURCE
Back to top
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of use
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy & cookies
  • Contact

[email protected]

CREID team
Institute of Development Studies
Library Road
University of Sussex
Falmer BN1 8RE
East Sussex, United Kingdom

Sign up to our newsletter

Our mailing list is managed by
Institute of Development Studies

© 2023 CREID. Made by Surface Impression.



These options can change the way this website looks, which may help you to use it more easily.

Accessibility options


  •   Text options

Text options

Standard text

Standard text size

Large text

Large text size

Extra large text

Extra large text size