Islamabad: Former Pakistan premier and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto today alleged that several Hindu families supporting her Pakistan People's Party in Larkhana in southern Sindh province were being threatened to switch loyalties.
The Hindu community has complained that some prominent members in Shahdad Kot, Larkhana have been receiving threatening telephone calls demanding money and asking them to renounce their association with the PPP, Bhutto, who lives in self-exile in Dubai, said in a statement here.
She cited the case of a noted Hindu family of Warand Mal whose son was recently shot and wounded.
Another Hindu youth was shot and killed in Larkhana last month by unknown assailants, she said adding "threatening calls and letters were being routinely sent to Hindu families asking them to give up their association with the PPP".
No action has, however, been taken on the complaints filed by the affected Hindu families with police, she said.
Bhutto said she was shocked at the manner in which the "state apparatus had been let loose against the Hindus and that the life and honour of Hindus was not safe and they lived in a reign of terror in Sindh."
Criticising the government for its failure to provide protection to minorities despite claims of promoting liberalism and tolerance in the country, the former Pakistani Premier said, "Its real face was that the minorities were threatened and humiliated as never before".
"As elections draw near, the Hindu and minority supporters of the PPP were being harassed in a calculated and deliberate manner so as to strike terror in the hearts of the people of Sindh, which is my party stronghold," she said.
Asking the regime to "immediately stop terrorising the Hindus and other minorities in the country particularly in Sindh," she demanded an inquiry into the incidents of harassment of Hindus and punishment to those involved.
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