Pakistani Hindu families living in India seek citizenship

By PHP Staff
Thursday, May 19, 2011

(Photo : Indian passport )

Khanna, May 17 (PTI) Several Hindu families from Pakistan staying in Khanna, Rajpura and other towns of Punjab are seeking Indian citizenship, citing that they cannot go back "as atmosphere of terror prevails there." Despite being in India for several years, the government is yet to accept their pleas for citizenship, claimed many of those who moved to India. Om Lal, currently residing in New Model Town here, said he is a Pakistani Hindu, who shifted to India with his family on September 20, 1999, on the basis of Pakistan passport. He said his family has been allowed to stay in India on year to year basis. Lal said at the Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner's office in 2007 his family applied for Indian citizenship. Their application had been forwarded to Department of Home Affairs and Justice, Punjab Government, from where the case had been forwarded with positive recommendation to the Secretary, Union Home Affairs Ministry on May 26, 2010.

"We cannot go back. There is an atmosphere of terror prevailing in Pakistan. We want the Government to grant us Indian citizenship," Lal said. Around 35 members of six families from Pakistan are residing in Khanna town. Some families are also staying in Rajpura for a long time ago and are seeking citizenship. These families have rued that their world is limited to the jurisdiction of Khanna and Rajpura as they are allowed to leave the station only after police permission. "They had entered India with valid travel documents, but refused to return home citing that an atmosphere of terror prevailed there and ill treatment in Pakistan," a police official in Rajpura said. A Pakistani Hindu said: "Though I am not allowed outside Rajpura without permission, I would prefer staying here rather than going back." "In the absence of citizenship rights, we face problem related to employment, housing, health, education and others... We consider India as our motherland and this is the only and last resort available for us." Scores of Pakistani Hindu families have requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to listen to their grievances.

Meanwhile, BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Avinash Rai Khanna said he has taken up the issue of such families in the Rajya Sabha recently. Khanna, who is heading a three-member committee of the BJP constituted to locate and help Pakistani Hindu families, said they were forced to leave Pakistan "due to an atmosphere of terror there, especially the Taliban." PTI Cor SUN

Ashok Kumar a Pakistani Hindu of Samjhauta blast victims await relief, India

By PHP Staff
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

(Photo : 2007 A police officer looks at a burnt compartment of Samjhauta Express at Dewana,India)

NEW DELHI : The families of 16 people who could not be identified, even four years after the Samjhauta Express blast on February 18, 2007, have now asked the Indian and the Pakistani governments to rise above politics and compensate them.

"We have filed RTIs with the Northern Railway, which said 16 bodies are still unidentified. The Haryana police say relatives of these 16 people cannot make a claim before the railway tribunal until the DNA tests prove their identity. A separate RTI query to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, reveals that all 63 bone and tissue samples sent by cops have been examined. Will these poor people never receive the Rs 10-lakh compensation," asks Ashok Randhwa, president of the South Asian Forum For People Against Terror.

It was this 23-year-old web designer's maiden visit to the country he had heard so much about from his uncle Ramesh Kumar (43), a dry-fruits merchant at Sialkot in Pakistan. Two years since that first visit, Ashok Kumar regularly comes to India with the hope that the innumerable surgeries by doctors here can finally fix his fingers again.

The duo is presently putting up at a relative's house in Tughlaqabad. "Neighbours here have been asking me how it feels to be a Hindu staying in Pakistan. I tell them that there are more than 120 Hindu families at Sialkot," Ramesh said

NOTE : If anyone has contact information of Ramesh Kumar a Tughlaqabad (Delhi/India) based who is relative of Ashok Kumar a Hindu resident of Sialkot (Punjab) in Pakistan. Please write us at namastepakistan@gmail.com.

The PHP Team

Pakistani Hindu families demand bill on marriage registration

By Mohammad S.Solanki
Friday, January 07, 2011

(Photo : ISLAMABAD Activists of SCRM protesting for Hindu Marriage Registration Bill, Pakistan)

Islamabad : Families of the Scheduled Caste Hindus in Pakistan have demanded of the government that the Hindu Marriage Registration Bill should be passed by Parliament as early as possible.

Women belonging to Scheduled Caste Hindus from Sindh and Southern Punjab converged in front of the National Press Club on Saturday, and held a protest demonstration demanding proper legislation for their marriage registration, The Nation reported.

Holding the demonstration under the banner of Scheduled Caste Rights Movement (SCRM), they said that all forms of discrimination against the Hindu community should be abolished through proper legislation.

The women protestors also criticised the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, for not paying heed to the longstanding demands of the Hindu community despite assurances.

They said Bhatti had assured the National Assembly in February 2010 that the government would pass the Hindu Marriage Registration Bill within three months, but no progress was made despite a passage of over ten months now.

The women protestors also shared their various personal experiences, problems and miseries owing to not having any proof of their marriages.

They said other minorities like Christians living in Pakistan had their respective bylaws and procedures to register their marriages, but 4.5 million Pakistani Hindus, the biggest minority in Pakistan with reference to population, had been deprived of their basic right of marriage registration.

Non-registration of marriages of the Hindu community in Pakistan has resulted in many problems, as Hindu couples are deprived of all facilities that a Pakistani couple can avail after marriage. 

Hindu couples cannot even get their Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC), as they do not have any proof of their marriages.

Pakistani Hindu woman moves court over temple

By Mohammad S.Solanki (Managing Editor)
Friday, November 12, 2010

Peshawar :  A Hindu woman in this northwestern Pakistani city has moved the high court to stake claim over an old temple. The court Tuesday directed the archaeology and revenue departments to present the temple records.

A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court directed the Peshawar district revenue officer and the director of archaeology and museums to produce the records of the temple located in the walled city locality of Gor Gathri, the News International reported Wednesday.

The court took suo moto cognizance of an application filed by Phool Vati, who claimed rights over the temple.

She claimed in her application that her family was caretaker of the temple before Pakistan became independent and her title to the temple should be restored.

Phool Vati said that in 2002 the archaeology department took possession of the temple. The authorities took away precious statues and a trident made of gold.

She mentioned that she had moved a civil court for seeking ownership of the temple and adjoining residential quarters. However, the court dismissed her plea on the ground that it had no jurisdiction to hear it.

Director of Archaeology and Museums Saleh Muhammad Khan informed the court that the Peshawar Development Authority had set aside a sum of Rs.2.5 million for the preservation of the temple.

In a previous hearing, Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Khursheed has said that the temple was on an archaeological site.

Pakistani Hindu arrested with fake currency in India

By Gopinath Kumar (Executive Editor)
Saturday, July 17, 2010

(PHOTO : A Hindu temple in Karachi's posh Clifton area, Pakistan)

INDIA : Punjab police today arrested a Pakistan national for carrying fake Indian currency with a face value of Rs 15,000 here.

Wasu Ram (35) was arrested following information from a shopkeeper that a man was trying to pass off a fake note in a market here.

According to the police, Wasu Ram was carrying fake Indian currency and was trying to purchased some goods from the local market with it. When he tried to pass off the counterfeit note at a shop, the shopkeeper immediately brought the matter into the notice of police which arrested Ram and recovered Rs 15,000 in the denomination of Rs 500.

Police said Ram, resident of Sindh province of Pakistan, had come to India yesterday for pilgrimage to Hindu temples at various states along with a group of Hindus from Pakistan.