KARACHI: Demanding immediate recovery of “kidnapped” Hindu girl Asha Kumari and social worker and religious figure Gangaram Motiani, a large number of Hindu community and civil society members staged a demonstration at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday.

The participants of the demonstration organised by the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) chanted slogans for the immediate recovery of Asha Kumari and Gangaram Motiani. Speaking on the occasion, PHC chief Ramesh Vankwani said Asha Kumari was kidnapped in Jacobabad over 41 days back, and even the March 8 Supreme Court directive for her recovery had not been followed by the police.

He said that while the minor girl had not been recovered, Gangaram Motiani, who is the president of the Hinglaj Mata Shewa Mandli, had been kidnapped by people in police uniform in a Bela area of Balochistan on April 6.

The incident happened just days before one of the largest annual Hindu community gatherings at the Hinglaj Mata temple in Hingol National Park, he added.

He claimed that Mr Motiani was kidnapped to sabotage the three-day annual fair starting on Monday, adding that people from all over the world were coming to attend the event.

He warned that if the kidnapped people were not recovered by Tuesday, the community members returning from the fair would stage a sit-in at the Zero Point on the Coastal Highway on Wednesday.

He said kidnappings of minority Hindu community members were being carried out to harass them to force them to leave the country, but they would not migrate to any country.

He claimed that Hindu girls were kidnapped, compelled to change their religion and married off by force while Hindu children and men were kidnapped mostly for ransom.

He said he suspected that the kidnapping of Mr Motiani was not carried out for ransom because he was not a rich man and he might be have been kidnapped for his religious activities.

Community leaders Mangla Sharma, Dr Verma, Dr Lajpat, Dr Jaipal and others on the occasion demanded that the kidnappers were arrested and tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act and severely punished according to the law.

Members of the Young Hindus Forum, civil society organisations, including the Aurat Foundation and Minority Committee of Pakistan, took part in the demonstration.