KARACHI, Oct 19: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has urged the authorities to provide safety and security to a large number of minority Hindu community members who were being forcibly evicted from their homes in a residential compound in Lyari.

A report of the HRCP’s fact-finding team says that not only the minorities were being evicted, but a temple in the century old Hindu community compound, located opposite the Kakri Ground, had been taken over by a Pir whose disciples claim that the temple used to be a mosque before.

The HRCP report says that over 100 Hindu families used to live in the compound, which also has a Lord Shiva Temple, constructed in 1901. After the partition, this compound was exclusively earmarked for Hindus by the Government of Sindh under the Evacuee Property Act 1957.

The Hindu residents of the compound were paying rent to Pakistan government under an 1958 agreement which is administered under the auspices of the Evacuee Property Act 1957. The Act prohibits a person(s) who was granted a land, from selling it. The land grabbers, with the help of Baghdadi police, Lyari Town, had been forcibly evicting residents in that compound. As a result, only 35 families had been left.

A local minority councillor who tried to raise the issue with the local government as well as with the chief minister, has been harassed by police, the report says.

The HRCP’s team comprised Ejaz Ahsan, Asad Iqbal, Amarnath Motumal, Abdul Hai and others.