Priya Kumari and Sindh Police

Priya Kumari was nine years old when she came to shake hands with her father Rajkumar aka Raju in the sabil held on the 10th of Muharram on August 19, 2021. His father went to someone’s house around three in the afternoon. When Rajkumar returned, Priya Kumari was missing. More than two years have passed since Priya Kumari went missing, but Priya Kumari could not be found. Priya Kumari belongs to a small Goth Sangrar attached to Sukkur.

Priya Kumari’s father owns a retail shop. Rajkumar says that mobile service was suspended on 10 Muharram due to security reasons. Rajkumar went to the houses of his relatives but could not find anything about Priya Kumari, then went to the police station and filed a report. The abduction of Priya Kumari not only affected her parents but also created fear in the entire Hindu community. Hindu community has settled in Sangrar for centuries and majority of this community belongs to poor class but many families were forced to leave their native areas. Police registered a case and started investigation.

When the police could not do anything, the police officers started saying that the mobile service was off that day, so geo-fencing was not possible. There were no CCTV cameras installed in Sangrar market, so even this device could not help. Rajkumar contacted politicians and elected representatives, after the news of Priya Kumari’s abduction was published in several newspapers, electronic and social media, the police formed a joint investigation team. The team was formed by adding two DSPs nominated by Hyderabad SSP Tanveer Taniv and IG Sindh and Mirpur Khas DIG Javed Jaskani was appointed as the head of this team.

Human Rights Commission HRCP, an organization of international repute for ameliorating the conditions of the oppressed sections and uncovering the facts, launched a mission to find out the facts on the Priya Kumari case. The mission interviewed Priya Kumari’s relatives and others. Many of them expressed fear that Priya Kumari is in the mansion of influential people, but the police are avoiding real action due to pressure.

Some people also said that this conversion is not a matter of religion but a member of Priya Kumari’s family refused to obey the orders of influential people on which Priya Kumari has been abducted. However, the HRCP mission contacted Sukkur police officers. Describing the performance of the police in detail, these officers said that the police questioned 1,000 people during the investigation and three hundred houses were searched with the help of detectives and DNA tests were conducted on 22 people.

Information was obtained from dargahs and temples and investigations were also conducted in the settlements of nomads and beggars in the surrounding area. SSP Sukkur Abid Baloch told reporters that they have made all possible efforts and extended the investigation to Punjab.

The police also stated that Priya’s parents are not cooperating, while Priya’s father Rajkumar says that the police have two of their mobile phones, one of which Priya used to play games, but it does not have a SIM card. And so much time has passed that even the passwords of these mobile phones are not remembered, when the police could not perform any performance, the Chief Justice of Sindh High Court took notice in 2021 and JIT was formed on the order of the honorable court.

Manwar Laghari, an American citizen based in New York, has highlighted this issue in the United Nations Human Rights Commission. US Congressman Brad Sherman wrote on a social media website in September 2023 that it had been two years since Priya Kumari’s disappearance, the House of Foreign Affairs’ Human Rights Subcommittee working on child trafficking also addressed the issue. is considering

This committee will ensure that Priya Kumari’s recovery efforts do not go in vain. When there were protests across Sindh on the issue of Priya Kumari, Member of the National Assembly from Sukkur Khursheed Shah took a stand that why this issue is being raised after two years? The issue of mistreatment of Priya Kumari and women of other religions has now become a global issue.

United Nations human rights experts, including MP Tomoya Obakata and Saubhu, the UN Special Envoy on Atrocities against Women and Children, say that the conditions of women belonging to other religions other than Muslims in Pakistan are very bad.

These experts have written in this report that there is a series of violation of basic rights of these women which is ongoing. These experts have described the incidents of forced conversion and forced marriages as dangerous. Experts have demanded from the government of Pakistan that there is an urgent need for practical measures to protect women belonging to other religions.

A leading Sindhi intellectual has written in his article that Priya Kumari was abducted when she was working to distribute syrup to Muslims on a very sad and painful day as part of Sindh’s ancient tradition of religious tolerance. The abduction and non-availability of Priya Kumari proves that justice for women is still not possible.

Another fact is that Priya Kumari belonged to a poor family, so even the poor in Sindh are not getting justice. Human rights activists are saying that just as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari expelled an influential person from the PPP on the charge of harassing the Hindu community, now similar action should be taken against the influential people involved in the crime of kidnapping Priya Kumari. . Former Chief Justice Tasadeq Hussain Jilani gave an excellent decision in 2014 to protect the rights of other religions.

A one-member commission was established under the leadership of Dr. Shoaib Siddal to implement this decision. Dr. Siddal had prepared a detailed report, but this report could not be fully implemented yet, if Dr. Shoaib Siddal’s recommendations are implemented, the situation could improve.

An expert says that after the events that took place in 1971, under a systematic plan, minorities in Sindh are forced to leave their native areas. The failure to recover Priya Kumari is on the one hand the failure of the police, on the other hand the Sindh government’s claims of law and order have blown up. This treatment of minorities harms Pakistan’s position in the world scene.