An 18-year-old girl from the minority Hindu community in Pakistan was shot dead after a failed abduction attempt.

The shocking incident took place in Sukkur town of the southern Sindh province on Monday.

According to the Dawn newspaper, Pooja Kumari was shot dead&nbsp;at her house after assailants opened fire.

According to reports, one of the assailants— Wahid Bux Lashari—wanted to abduct her so that he can marry her forcefully.

The assailants were then arrested, following an outcry from the activists.

The majority of Pakistan's Hindu population is settled in Sindh province where they share culture, traditions and language with Muslim residents. They often complain of harassment by extremists.

Every year, several women belonging to minority communities, especially Hindus in Sindh, are abducted and forcibly converted by religious extremists, Pakistan-based The Friday Times newspaper said.

According to the People's Commission for Minorities' Rights and the Centre for Social Justice, 156 incidents of forced conversions took place between 2013 and 2019. Pakistan's minority communities have long faced the issue of forced marriages and conversions.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reports the overall population of the Hindu community in Pakistan at 1.60 per cent, and 6.51 per cent in Sindh respectively, it said.

According to the report by the Pakistani newspaper, the Sindh government in 2019 attempted to outlaw forced conversions and marriages for the second time, but certain religious protesters contested the bill, arguing that these girls are not forced to convert but do so after falling in love with Muslim men. The law was then rejected.

(With inputs from agencies)

An 18-year-old girl from the minority Hindu community in Pakistan was shot dead after a failed abduction attempt. The shocking incident took place in Sukkur town of the southern Sindh province on Monday.

An 18-year-old girl from the minority Hindu community in Pakistan was shot dead after a failed abduction attempt. The shocking incident took place in Sukkur town of the southern Sindh province on Monday. According to the Dawn newspaper, Pooja Kumari was shot dead at her house after assailants opened fire. According to reports, one of the assailants— Wahid Bux Lashari—wanted to abduct her so that he can marry her forcefully. The assailants were then arrested, following an outcry from the activists. The majority of Pakistan's Hindu population is settled in Sindh province where they share culture, traditions and language with Muslim residents. They often complain of harassment by extremists. Every year, several women belonging to minority communities, especially Hindus in Sindh, are abducted and forcibly converted by religious extremists, Pakistan-based The Friday Times newspaper said. According to the People's Commission for Minorities' Rights and the Centre for Social Justice, 156 incidents of forced conversions took place between 2013 and 2019. Pakistan's minority communities have long faced the issue of forced marriages and conversions. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reports the overall population of the Hindu community in Pakistan at 1.60 per cent, and 6.51 per cent in Sindh respectively, it said. According to the report by the Pakistani newspaper, the Sindh government in 2019 attempted to outlaw forced conversions and marriages for the second time, but certain religious protesters contested the bill, arguing that these girls are not forced to convert but do so after falling in love with Muslim men. The law was then rejected. (With inputs from agencies)

18-year-old Hindu girl shot dead in Pakistan after failed abduction attempt

Fetching drinking water from a mosque in Pakistan's Punjab province landed a family of poor farmers from the minority Hindu community in trouble as some people tortured and held them hostage for "violating the sanctity" of their place of worship, a media report said on Monday.

Alam Ram Bheel, a resident of Punjab's Rahimyar Khan city, was picking raw cotton along with his other family members, including his wife, in a field.

Bheel said when the family went outside a nearby mosque to fetch drinking water from a tap, some local landlords beat them up, the Dawn newspaper reported.

When the family was returning home after unloading the picked cotton, the landlords held them hostage at their dera (outhouse) and tortured them again for "violating the sanctity" of the mosque, it said.

The police did not register a case as the attackers were related to a local parliamentarian of Prime Minister Imran Khan's ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Bheel said.

Protesting police apathy, Bheel held a sit-in outside the police station along with another clan member, Peter John Bheel.

Peter, also a member of the district peace committee, said that they approached ruling PTI lawmaker Javed Warriach, who helped them lodge a case on Friday.

Peter requested other members of the district peace committee to call an emergency meeting over the issue but they did not take the matter seriously, the report said.

PTI's south Punjab minority wing secretary general, Yodhister Chohan, said that the incident was in his knowledge, but due to the influence of a ruling party's MP, he preferred to stay away.

District Police Officer Asad Sarfraz said that he was looking into the matter.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Khuram Shehzad said he would meet Hindu minority elders on Monday before taking any action.

Asked about the 'inactive' peace committee, the officer claimed it was "fully functional".

Farooq Rind, a senior lawyer and former district bar president, said he also belonged to the Basti Kahoor area where the Bheels had been living for more than a century. He said that most of the clan members were farm workers and extremely poor.

Rind said the accused landlords were notorious for picking up fights with other villagers over petty issues. He promised free legal aid for the complainant family, the report said.

Hindus form the biggest minority community in Pakistan. According to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live in Pakistan. However, according to the community, over 90 lakh Hindus are living in the country.

The majority of Pakistan's Hindu population is settled in Sindh province where they share culture, traditions and language with Muslim residents. They often complain of harassment by extremists.

Fetching drinking water from a mosque in Pakistan's Punjab province landed a family of poor farmers from the minority Hindu community in trouble as some people tortured and held them hostage for "violating the sanctity" of their place of worship, a media report said on Monday.

Fetching drinking water from a mosque in Pakistan's Punjab province landed a family of poor farmers from the minority Hindu community in trouble as some people tortured and held them hostage for "violating the sanctity" of their place of worship, a media report said on Monday. Alam Ram Bheel, a resident of Punjab's Rahimyar Khan city, was picking raw cotton along with his other family members, including his wife, in a field. Bheel said when the family went outside a nearby mosque to fetch drinking water from a tap, some local landlords beat them up, the Dawn newspaper reported. When the family was returning home after unloading the picked cotton, the landlords held them hostage at their dera (outhouse) and tortured them again for "violating the sanctity" of the mosque, it said. The police did not register a case as the attackers were related to a local parliamentarian of Prime Minister Imran Khan's ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Bheel said. Protesting police apathy, Bheel held a sit-in outside the police station along with another clan member, Peter John Bheel. Peter, also a member of the district peace committee, said that they approached ruling PTI lawmaker Javed Warriach, who helped them lodge a case on Friday. Peter requested other members of the district peace committee to call an emergency meeting over the issue but they did not take the matter seriously, the report said. PTI's south Punjab minority wing secretary general, Yodhister Chohan, said that the incident was in his knowledge, but due to the influence of a ruling party's MP, he preferred to stay away. District Police Officer Asad Sarfraz said that he was looking into the matter. Deputy Commissioner Dr Khuram Shehzad said he would meet Hindu minority elders on Monday before taking any action. Asked about the 'inactive' peace committee, the officer claimed it was "fully functional". Farooq Rind, a senior lawyer and former district bar president, said he also belonged to the Basti Kahoor area where the Bheels had been living for more than a century. He said that most of the clan members were farm workers and extremely poor. Rind said the accused landlords were notorious for picking up fights with other villagers over petty issues. He promised free legal aid for the complainant family, the report said. Hindus form the biggest minority community in Pakistan. According to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live in Pakistan. However, according to the community, over 90 lakh Hindus are living in the country. The majority of Pakistan's Hindu population is settled in Sindh province where they share culture, traditions and language with Muslim residents. They often complain of harassment by extremists.

Hindu family in Pakistan tortured, held hostage for fetching drinking water from mosque

Members of the Sindhi community have gathered in Houston ahead of the `Howdy, Modi!` event to draw attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards their cause of gaining freedom from Pakistan.

Highlighting the grave violation of human rights of Sindhi community by Pakistan Army, Sindhi activist Zafar on Saturday urged PM Modi to help the province attain independence from the country in the way Bangladesh was liberated in 1971.

"Sindhi people have come here in Houston with a message. When Modi ji passes through here in the morning, we`ll be standing here with placards carrying the message that we want freedom from Pakistan. We hope Modi ji and President Trump help us," said Zafar.

"We want the Prime Minister to help Sindh attain independence from Pakistan like how Bangladesh was Liberated in 1971," he added.

For long, Pakistan establishment has been criticised by international bodies and local human rights organisations for its practice of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.&nbsp;

According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, an entity established by the Pakistani government, about 5,000 cases of enforced disappearances have been registered since 2014.&nbsp;

Most of them are still unresolved.

Independent local and international human rights organisations put the numbers much higher.&nbsp;

Around 20,000 have reportedly been abducted from Balochistan only, out of which more than 2,500 have turned up dead as bullet-riddled bodies, bearing signs of extreme torture.

Before being elected as Prime Minister, Imran Khan had admitted in multiple interviews about the involvement of Pakistan`s intelligence agencies in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and vowed to resign if he was unable to put an end to the practice, holding those involved responsible.&nbsp;

Members of the Sindhi community have gathered in Houston ahead of the `Howdy, Modi!` event to draw attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards their cause of gaining freedom from Pakistan.

Members of the Sindhi community have gathered in Houston ahead of the `Howdy, Modi!` event to draw attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards their cause of gaining freedom from Pakistan. Highlighting the grave violation of human rights of Sindhi community by Pakistan Army, Sindhi activist Zafar on Saturday urged PM Modi to help the province attain independence from the country in the way Bangladesh was liberated in 1971. "Sindhi people have come here in Houston with a message. When Modi ji passes through here in the morning, we`ll be standing here with placards carrying the message that we want freedom from Pakistan. We hope Modi ji and President Trump help us," said Zafar. "We want the Prime Minister to help Sindh attain independence from Pakistan like how Bangladesh was Liberated in 1971," he added. For long, Pakistan establishment has been criticised by international bodies and local human rights organisations for its practice of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, an entity established by the Pakistani government, about 5,000 cases of enforced disappearances have been registered since 2014. Most of them are still unresolved. Independent local and international human rights organisations put the numbers much higher. Around 20,000 have reportedly been abducted from Balochistan only, out of which more than 2,500 have turned up dead as bullet-riddled bodies, bearing signs of extreme torture. Before being elected as Prime Minister, Imran Khan had admitted in multiple interviews about the involvement of Pakistan`s intelligence agencies in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and vowed to resign if he was unable to put an end to the practice, holding those involved responsible.

Help Sindh attain independence from Pakistan: Activist urges PM Modi

The US State Department on Wednesday slammed human rights violations in China, saying the sort of abuses it had inflicted on its <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/chinese-official-rejects-criticism-over-xinjiang-muslim-camps-says-it-will-gradually-disappear-202913">Muslim minorities</a> had not been seen "since the 1930s."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo highlighted abuses in Iran, South Sudan, Nicaragua and China in the department`s annual "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," but told reporters that China was "in a league of its own when it comes to human rights violations."&nbsp;

"For me, you haven’t seen things like this since the 1930s," Michael Kozak, the head of the State Department`s human rights and democracy bureau told the same briefing, referring to abuses of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/ready-to-allow-un-officials-in-xinjiang-if-they-follow-proper-procedure-china-188790">China`s Muslim minority in the Xinjiang </a>region.

"Rounding up, in some estimations ... in the millions of people, putting them into camps, and torturing them, abusing them, and trying to basically erase their culture and their religion and so on from their DNA. It’s just remarkably awful."

"It is one of the most serious human rights violations in the world today," he said.

While Kozak did not elaborate on his comment about the 1930s, he was apparently referring to the policies of persecution of Hitler`s Germany and Stalin`s Soviet Union.&nbsp;

China had initially denied there even were camps, Kozak said, adding its explanation now that they were for voluntary labour training "does not match the facts."

"But at least we`re starting to make them realize there is a lot of international scrutiny on this," he said.

China`s Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on the report, which comes at a time of closely-watched trade negotiations between the United States and China aimed at resolving a tit-for-tat tariffs dispute.

Xinjiang Governor Shohrat Zakir said on Tuesday that China was running boarding schools, not concentration camps, in the country`s far western region as the US ambassador for religious freedom called the situation there "completely unacceptable," and said sanctions against Chinese officials under the Global Magnitsky Act remained a "possibility."

The administration of President Donald Trump has weighed sanctions against senior Chinese officials in Xinjiang, including the Communist Party boss there, Chen Quanguo, who as a member of the powerful politburo is in the upper echelons of China`s leadership. Beijing has warned of retaliation if Washington were to target Chen and the administration has yet to act despite complaints from US lawmakers.

The State Department report said Chen had replicated in Xinjiang policies similar to those credited with reducing opposition to Communist Party rule in Tibet, where he was previously stationed.

INTENSIFIED DETENTION CAMPAIGN&nbsp;

The report said that in the past year, China had significantly intensified its campaign of mass detention of members of Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.

It said authorities there were reported to have arbitrarily detained from 800,000 to possibly more than two million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslims in camps with the aim of erasing religious and ethnic identities.

Pompeo said the Iranian government had killed more than 20 people and arrested thousands without due process for protesting for their rights "continuing a pattern of cruelty the regime has inflicted on the Iranian people for the last four decades."

In South Sudan, he said, military forces had inflicted sexual violence against civilians based on their political allegiances and ethnicity, while in Nicaragua, peaceful protesters had faced sniper fire and government critics had "faced a policy of exile, jail or death."

The report also revised its usual description of the Golan Heights from "Israeli-occupied" to "Israeli-controlled."

A separate section on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas that Israel captured along with the Golan Heights in a 1967 war in the Middle East, also did not refer to those territories as being "occupied," or under "occupation."

In Myanmar, the report said press freedom had declined and journalists had reported that self-censorship had became more pronounced because of the trial and conviction of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were jailed for seven years after being convicted in September of breaking a colonial-era official secrets law.

The reporters had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Muslim men and boys by security forces and Buddhist civilians in Myanmar`s Rakhine State.

Responding to the US report, Amnesty International criticized the Trump administration for engaging with governments, including that of Saudi Arabia, "regardless of their human rights record, if doing so will advance US interests."&nbsp;

The State Department report highlighted Saudi Arabia`s killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and said it had not provided a detailed explanation of the direction or progress of the investigation.

A CIA assessment and a Senate resolution have blamed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for ordering the killing, something Saudi officials deny, but President Donald Trump has said Washington will remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia even though the prince may have known about the plan.

Republican and Democratic US senators said this month they were frustrated with the Trump administration`s failure to provide more information about the case and vowed to push for a stronger response.

The US State Department on Wednesday slammed human rights violations in China, saying the sort of abuses it had inflicted on its Muslim minorities had not been seen "since the 1930s.

The US State Department on Wednesday slammed human rights violations in China, saying the sort of abuses it had inflicted on its Muslim minorities had not been seen "since the 1930s." US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo highlighted abuses in Iran, South Sudan, Nicaragua and China in the department`s annual "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," but told reporters that China was "in a league of its own when it comes to human rights violations." "For me, you haven’t seen things like this since the 1930s," Michael Kozak, the head of the State Department`s human rights and democracy bureau told the same briefing, referring to abuses of China`s Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region. "Rounding up, in some estimations ... in the millions of people, putting them into camps, and torturing them, abusing them, and trying to basically erase their culture and their religion and so on from their DNA. It’s just remarkably awful." "It is one of the most serious human rights violations in the world today," he said. While Kozak did not elaborate on his comment about the 1930s, he was apparently referring to the policies of persecution of Hitler`s Germany and Stalin`s Soviet Union. China had initially denied there even were camps, Kozak said, adding its explanation now that they were for voluntary labour training "does not match the facts." "But at least we`re starting to make them realize there is a lot of international scrutiny on this," he said. China`s Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on the report, which comes at a time of closely-watched trade negotiations between the United States and China aimed at resolving a tit-for-tat tariffs dispute. Xinjiang Governor Shohrat Zakir said on Tuesday that China was running boarding schools, not concentration camps, in the country`s far western region as the US ambassador for religious freedom called the situation there "completely unacceptable," and said sanctions against Chinese officials under the Global Magnitsky Act remained a "possibility." The administration of President Donald Trump has weighed sanctions against senior Chinese officials in Xinjiang, including the Communist Party boss there, Chen Quanguo, who as a member of the powerful politburo is in the upper echelons of China`s leadership. Beijing has warned of retaliation if Washington were to target Chen and the administration has yet to act despite complaints from US lawmakers. The State Department report said Chen had replicated in Xinjiang policies similar to those credited with reducing opposition to Communist Party rule in Tibet, where he was previously stationed. INTENSIFIED DETENTION CAMPAIGN The report said that in the past year, China had significantly intensified its campaign of mass detention of members of Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang. It said authorities there were reported to have arbitrarily detained from 800,000 to possibly more than two million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslims in camps with the aim of erasing religious and ethnic identities. Pompeo said the Iranian government had killed more than 20 people and arrested thousands without due process for protesting for their rights "continuing a pattern of cruelty the regime has inflicted on the Iranian people for the last four decades." In South Sudan, he said, military forces had inflicted sexual violence against civilians based on their political allegiances and ethnicity, while in Nicaragua, peaceful protesters had faced sniper fire and government critics had "faced a policy of exile, jail or death." The report also revised its usual description of the Golan Heights from "Israeli-occupied" to "Israeli-controlled." A separate section on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas that Israel captured along with the Golan Heights in a 1967 war in the Middle East, also did not refer to those territories as being "occupied," or under "occupation." In Myanmar, the report said press freedom had declined and journalists had reported that self-censorship had became more pronounced because of the trial and conviction of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were jailed for seven years after being convicted in September of breaking a colonial-era official secrets law. The reporters had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Muslim men and boys by security forces and Buddhist civilians in Myanmar`s Rakhine State. Responding to the US report, Amnesty International criticized the Trump administration for engaging with governments, including that of Saudi Arabia, "regardless of their human rights record, if doing so will advance US interests." The State Department report highlighted Saudi Arabia`s killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and said it had not provided a detailed explanation of the direction or progress of the investigation. A CIA assessment and a Senate resolution have blamed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for ordering the killing, something Saudi officials deny, but President Donald Trump has said Washington will remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia even though the prince may have known about the plan. Republican and Democratic US senators said this month they were frustrated with the Trump administration`s failure to provide more information about the case and vowed to push for a stronger response.

US says China's treatment of Muslim minority worst abuses 'since the 1930s'

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18-year-old Hindu girl shot dead in Pakistan after failed abduction attempt

Hindu family in Pakistan tortured, held hostage for fetching drinking water from mosque

Help Sindh attain independence from Pakistan: Activist urges PM Modi

US says China's treatment of Muslim minority worst abuses 'since the 1930s'