{"id":17316,"date":"2019-04-02T01:06:40","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T14:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcaold\/?p=17316"},"modified":"2020-11-26T17:28:20","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T06:28:20","slug":"why-pakistani-hindus-leave-their-home-for-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwip.com.au\/hcaold\/why-pakistani-hindus-leave-their-home-for-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Pakistani Hindus leave their home for India"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New Delhi :<\/strong> Almost every family living in the two refugee colonies in the capital for Hindus from Pakistan has a story to tell on what impelled them to leave their homes and flee to India.<\/p>\n

Dharmu \u2018Master\u2019, a tailor in his early-40s, came to India in 2017. His wife and three children took the only train \u2014 Thar Express \u2014 from his village in Sindh and got down at Jodhpur in Rajasthan before coming to Delhi. \u201cWe got a visa to visit Haridwar. But while leaving our house in Pakistan, we knew we would not return again,\u201d says Dharmu. \u201cI had an established business there but we had to leave because we were being targeted by our neighbours.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Every family has relatives left behind in Pakistan, and they fear for their safety, especially after strikes in Balakot, Pakistan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trouble started in 2016 when Dharmu opened a new shop and inscribed religious symbols on the billboard. He was asked to remove the symbols. When he did not oblige,he was threatened and his shop vandalised. Although Dharmu has had to give up his profession and does not have a steady income, he says he has found his \u201clost confidence and self-respect\u201d in India.<\/p>\n

His three children go to school and his eldest daughter, Meena, recently passed her Class VI exams at a government school, something which was not possible in the neighbouring country, he says. Dharmu\u2019s story was echoed by other colony dwellers. They say they lived in fear in Pakistan, faced threats, victimisation and financial exclusion. When the first set of families settled in Delhi, word spread that \u201cIndia was welcoming its people\u201d and more started trickling in.<\/p>\n

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And yet every family has relatives left behind in Pakistan \u2014 a brother, son, daughter \u2014 and they fear for their safety, especially after India\u2019s strikes against terrorist camps in Balakot, Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Ashutosh Joshi, an activist who runs crowdfunding campaigns to sponsor the colony\u2019s every day expenses on medicines, diesel generator and house repairs, is also active in social media groups where people from Sindh share their \u201cwoes\u201d. Citing the example of two Hindu<\/span> girls, Raveena, 13, and Reena, 15, who were allegedly kidnapped by a group of \u201cinfluential\u201d men from their home in Ghotki in Sindh on the eve of Holi, Joshi claims that at least seven Hindu<\/span> minor girls have been kidnapped in the past 35 days as \u201crevenge\u201d against the Balakot strike.<\/p>\n

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Power line was discontinued in 2017 plunging the colony to darkness<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joshi, a senior finance manager at a Noida-based multinational corporation, got involved in the colony\u2019s activities two years ago and started a crowdfunding campaign on online platform, Milaap, raising Rs 15 lakh for the refugees\u2019 rehabilitation. A portion went into sponsoring nine weddings in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost brides and grooms were from within the community, but some were refugees from another colony in Majnu ka Tila,\u201d says Joshi, who started another online campaign on Milaap recently.<\/p>\n

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Mud houses leave the refugees vulnerable to weather<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The refugee colony in Majnu ka Tila, a few kilometres away, was set up in 2011. Today, there are over 500 people from seven districts of Sindh living here. There are seven pradhans (chiefs) who oversee the colony\u2019s everyday affairs. Dharamveer, one of the pradhans, came to India in 2014.<\/p>\n

He says he migrated because he couldn\u2019t practise his religion in Pakistan. \u201cOur children could not study. Even when they did, the education was theocratic,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The struggle here is about an electricity connection. There was some respite in 2015, when the Arvind Kejriwal government facilitated regular water supply to the colony and a 24-hour generator. The power line was, however, discontinued in 2017, plunging the colony back in darkness. Since then, the pradhans have written regularly to authorities to reinstall their power supply but they have not got any reply.<\/p>\n

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Meena (left) who recently finished her class VI has found a new hobby in music<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Yamuna is just a few metres from our dwellings. Snakes are found here regularly and without light, it is difficult to protect ourselves in the darkness,\u201d says Dharamveer.<\/p>\n

But, he does not regret moving to India. \u201cHere, our problems are limited to food and water. In Pakistan, we had to be on constant vigil to ensure the safety of our women,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of us know someone who has been forcibly converted. At most times, they don\u2019t ask us to convert but constantly preach their own religion.\u201d He adds that he came to Delhi on a visitor\u2019s visa after telling officials in Pakistan that he was travelling for the Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh.<\/p>\n

Despite all difficulties, the decision to leave their ancestral homes wasn\u2019t easy. As 60-year-old Meghi, who left Pakistan\u2019s Hyderabad district four years ago, says, \u201cNobody wants to leave their homes willingly. We were forced to leave Pakistan because we had no option. If someone assures us of safety, we will go back. But for now, India is our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source : TOI<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Related Images:<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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