Karachi: The police in Sindh province baton-charged protesters holding a sit-in against the rising number of kidnappings of Hindu traders and other members of minority communities for ransom, injuring several of them. The protesters were also wounded by other faiths and other communities. The members of the minority communities have been staging the protest since September 1 over the abductions by bandits in riverine areas in Sindh’s Kashmore.
The police baton-charged and injured some of them after they refused to end the protest despite the intervention of an influential leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party that has governed the Sindh province for over a decade. One of the protest organisers, Dr Chand Mahar, claimed that five Hindus in all, including a nine-year-old youngster, had recently been abducted by dacoits. A Hindu girl, aged 7, was also kidnapped recently from a neighbourhood close to Sanghar. He claimed that the recent incidents had caused the neighbourhood to become fearful, making parents reluctant to send their kids to school.