Hindu groups in US protest religious discrimination in Pak

A group of US-based Hindu organisations has held a demonstration near Pakistan's Consulate here to voice concern over the religious discrimination of minorities in the country.
"This is nothing but religious apartheid for the entire world to see. Almost all the Hindus and Sikhs have been religiously cleansed from Pakistan with the blessings of the government. At the time of Partition, Hindus and Sikhs were approximately 22-25 per cent but now they are only about one per cent," Narain Kataria, president of Indian-American Intellectuals Forum and the key organiser of the rally, said.
The rally held yesterday afternoon in Manhattan was to voice concern against religious discrimination of minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists in Pakistan.

"Thousands of Hindu families are being torn apart by their desperation to flee persecution in Pakistan. We urge the Obama administration to intervene, save the minorities and restrain Pakistan," said Kataria.
Besides the Forum, the other organisations that took part in the rally included Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, Hindu Human Rights Watch, India Heritage Foundation, Lansing, Probasi of Brooklyn, Michigan Justice for Hindus and Human Rights Coalition against Radical Islam.
The peaceful demonstration was organised to condemn the atrocities as well inform New Yorkers on the religious bigotry practiced in Pakistan, Kataria.

"We want to express our solidarity with the victims and assure them that we will do our best to expose the evil designs of Pakistan in the US," he said.

"Torture, loot, discrimination and murder of Hindu men and rape of Hindu girls and their forcible marriage to Muslims have become the order of the day in the failed state," Kataria said.
According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on an average around 20 to 25 Hindu girls are being abducted, converted to Islam and forcibly married to Muslim men every month in the southern Sindh province.
"Also a campaign of vilification and slander is being unleashed against Hindus, Sikhs and Christians in Pakistan to denigrate and demonise their religions and preventing them from practicing their religious faith," he added.