250,000 Sindhi Hindus Forced To Migrate By Floods, Pakistan

Source: Daily Times - Amar Guriro
Tuesday, September 21, 2010

(PHOTO : Sindh_flood during 2010 )

KARACHI : 250,000 Hindus of Sindh, who left their native villages and towns and shifted to relief camps after the flood, could not celebrate the religious festival of Janmashtami (the birth of Lord Krishna). The celebrations comprising special foods, prayers, visits to temples, religious rituals, recitation of bhajans and fasting, which are supposed to be an essential part of the festival, are impossible to arrange at the relief camps.

Pakistan Hindu Foundation (PHF), a representative body of Pakistani Hindus, has estimated that floods have severely affected 250,000 Hindus living near the Indus River and forced them to leave their native places.

The last national census stated that with a population of 3 million, Hindus are the biggest religious minority in the country while a majority of them are peasants, living in different districts of the Mirpurkhas division. “Around 0.6 million Hindus live in the northern districts of Sindh while 250,000 were displaced from Kashmor, Jacobabad and Shikarpur, and have been shifted to camps,” said PHF president DM Maharaj.