Observer Report
Lahore
At least 14 members of Pakistan’s Hindu minority community recently returned from India after six months, saying their dreams of better economic prospects in the neighbouring country had been shattered.
Speaking to reporters at the Wagah border crossing, Kanhaya Lal and Nanak Ram, the heads of the families, said they went to India hoping for better economic prospects, but it was a “farce” and they suffered great hardships.
India recently passed a controversial law allowing Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to apply for fast-track citizenship.
Last month, a family of 11 Pakistani Hindus was found dead in a rented farmhouse in the city of Jodhpur in India’s Rajasthan state.“I knew that family, and most of them were educated. But there are no opportunities for any outsiders in India,” Lal said, adding, “The fact is they were living in miserable conditions and suffered from extreme poverty and there were dangerous threats to their lives.”
He said more than 28,000 Pakistani Hindus are stranded in Jodhpur waiting to return home. The family hails from the city of Mirpur Mathelo in Sindh.
The returning family includes children and women, who admitted that there was no facility for them in India, neither water nor any electricity. They said that Pakistan is our country, there is peace here.
The returning members of the Hindu community received a warm welcome on arrival in Pakistan.
