New Delhi: A teenage Hindu woman was murdered allegedly by a Muslim man in Pakistan’s Sindh Province for refusing to marry him, triggering considerable outrage and condemnation on social media from that country’s top opposition leaders and activists.
The woman, Pooja Kumari (18), was a resident of Ghotki city in the Shukkur region of Sindh. According to a report in Dawn, quoting Sukkur Station House Officer Bashir Jagirani, the suspect identified as Wahid Bux Lashari, along with two other accused, “broke into Pooja Kumari’s house and opened fire on her.” It said, “Officials said Lashari wanted to marry the teenager but she refused.”
A March 22 report in the Express Tribune said the police nabbed Lashari after it registered an FIR based on the woman’s father Sahib Oad’s complaint under Section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), Section 302 (punishment for murder) and 337H –II (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent act) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
“The law enforcement agency apprehended the main accused today and produced him in a local court, which remanded him into its custody for 10 days,” it said.
A Daily Pakistan report said the girl died on the spot. According to the newspaper, “Reports said that the accused, identified as Wahid Bux Lashari, wanted to marry Pooja Kumari, 18, after converting her to Islam.” He had allegedly entered her house to abduct her but shot at her fatally for resisting him. It said the her relatives “have staged protest on a road against the brutal murder and demanded stern action against the accused”.
On March 22, with the spread of the news about the murder of the 18 year old, extensive condemnation and outrage appeared on social media, with #JusticeforPooja trending on Twitter.
Well-known activist Jibran Nasir took to Twitter to state, “Doors to forced conversion of minor girls are open because child marriages are facilitated by corrupt and ignorant [officials].”
Ziauddin, father of Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, was also spotted tweeting on the crime. “This is disgusting. Heinous crime indeed. We all must speak up to demand justice for the bravest Pooja Kumari.”
As per Dawn, the chief opposition Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari issued a statement condemning the killing of the Hindu woman, appreciating the Sindh Police for “expeditious arrests” of all the suspects in the case. “In the statement, Bilawal said the relevant authorities should make sure that the culprits were meted out stringent punishments.”
Shehbaz Sharif, the president of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), tweeted, “The brutal murder of Hindu girl, Pooja Kumari, is most heinous & condemnable. Such heart-rending incidents represent our collective failure & put our whole society to shame. No girl deserves to go through this. High time we thought why we continue to hit lows one after the other.”
Reports highlighted that “former MQM leader Raza Haroon was among those who demanded justice for the slain girl”.