Published 16:54 IST, September 17th 2019
Pakistan: Hindu girl found dead in hostel room, family alleges murder
A first-year medical student, a Hindu girl from Sindh, was found dead in her hostel room; while the police claim it as a suicide, her family alleges murder
A first-year medical student, Namrita Chandani, a Hindu girl from Sindh, was found dead in her hostel room on Tuesday. She belonged to Ghotki town and was found lying on a charpoy. The police authorities alleged that the incident was a suicide but her family claimed that she was murdered. She was found with a piece of cloth tied to her neck while her room was reportedly locked from inside. Namrita's brother, who is a medical consultant himself, alleged that the preliminary checkup showed that she was murdered and it was not a suicide as suicide marks are different.
Vishal, Namrita's brother said, "It was not a suicide, suicide marks are different, I found cable marks around her neck. There are marks on her hand too. The marks are of cable but her friend had said that she found her with dupatta around her neck."
Demand for a fair investigation
The deceased's brother demanded that the case should be investigated fairly. He was also asked whether Namrita was facing any problems to which he replied saying that she was a brilliant student and had no troubles. He also claimed that he had a talk with her a few days before the incident took place. The alleged murder took place in Ghotki, a small district in Pakistan, located in Sindh province, where recently a Hindu temple was also ransacked. The temple was vandalised after a school principal from the minority Hindu community was booked on charges of alleged irreligiousness. The murder raised a lot of questions as many feel that it was a case of another forced conversion.
Forced conversion
Several cases of forced conversion have been highlighted in Pakistan. According to the reports, around 1,000 Sindhi Hindu girls, who are mostly between the age of 12-28, are abducted and forcibly married and converted to Islam. From 2004 to 2018, there have been around 7,000 cases of such abductions as reported by the Pakistan human rights commission. In another incident, a Sikh girl, Jagjit Kaur, from Shri Guru Nanak Dev in Pakistan was forcibly converted to Islam after being abducted and forced to get married to a Muslim man. Pakistan has been blamed internationally for cracking down on the minorities living in their country. The unfair means of treatment against the minority communities were also exposed when a former legislator Baldev Kumar and his family came to India to seek political asylum.
(With inputs from ANI)
Updated 21:08 IST, September 17th 2019