In Pakistan, PTI leader Rana Sakhawat shot dead by unidentified attackers in Sindh

A leader of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was assassinated in the country's Sindh province on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as Rana Sakhawat. He was shot by unidentified attackers inside his rice mill in Qambar district, reported ANI citing Daily Pakistan. The report further stated that Sakhawat was immediately rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. The ruling party's leader was also the president of the Rice Mill Association and one of the PTI Sindh chapters' most stalwart workers. Meanwhile, the perpetrators were able to flee the scene after the incident. 

Meanwhile, the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, condemned Sakhawat's murder and conveyed his condolences to his family. Sheikh further accused SSP Shahadatkot of being a "lawbreaker" and a "supporter of criminals" in the distant area, reported the Pakistani newspaper. Earlier in October 2019, Asif alias Chakli, the former president of the PTI's Karachi District Central branch, was shot dead in Azizabad by unidentified gunmen. The 42-year-old leader was killed when was coming out of a mosque after offering prayers, according to a report by The Express Tribune. 

Meanwhile, on November 20, an 11-year-old Hindu boy was allegedly sexually assaulted and brutally murdered in the Sindh province. According to the minor's family, he went missing on Friday evening (November 19) and his body was found the very next day in an abandoned house in Babarloi town in the Khairpur Mir area of the province. "The entire family was busy with Guru Nanak's birthday events. We do not know how the child went missing. He was found dead in the house at 11 pm. He was a grade five student and was born in 2011," Raj Kumar, a relative of the child, was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.  

'Minority communities face increasing violence in Pakistan'

According to a rights group in Islamabad, state-sponsored terrorism and the deteriorating state of human rights in Pakistan have reached a "critical juncture." They claimed that there has been an insidious rise of religious extremism against the country's minority community, with restrictions on freedom of expression. Meanwhile, Pakistani scholar Pervez Hoodbhoy stated that Christians, Hindus, and Parsis have fled Pakistan owing to the deteriorating human rights situation and increasing violence against minority communities in the country, reported ANI. 

Image: ANI/Representative