Islamabad, Pakistan
CNN
—
The mutilated body of a Hindu woman was found in a field in southeast Pakistan on Thursday, police said, as they investigate her alleged murder in the latest alleged attack on minorities in the majority country. Muslim.
The woman’s son, Somar Chand, said he found her disfigured body after searching for her missing mother with relatives, according to a police report seen by CNN. He alleged that his skin had been ripped off, his chest severed and his head split open with a sharp object.
Daya Bheel, 40, went missing on Wednesday, according to Surender Valasai, assistant to Pakistan’s chief human rights minister. Her son told police in Sindh province that his mother had left to collect grass but had not returned home, according to the police report.
Sindh police said they have made an unknown number of arrests in connection with the case and have set up a special team to investigate. They were unable to determine the motive for the alleged killing and did not provide further details.
The Pakistan Women’s Democratic Front said it was “extremely disturbed, saddened and shocked” to learn of the case.
“Our sister was murdered without mercy, her body was found tortured and mutilated, days ago, but there is a deafening silence in the halls of power and in the mainstream media,” the group said. “The Women’s Democratic Front calls on all women in the country, all our sisters to join hands to end this reign of violence and oppression.
Nearly 97% of Pakistan’s 270 million people are Muslim, according to the country’s statistics office, and minority groups often face discrimination and persecution.
Mobs have targeted and killed Christians, Hindus, Ahmadi Muslims, and Shia Muslims in attacks believed to be religiously motivated or on blasphemy charges, according to the 2021 U.S. government’s International Religious Freedoms Report. . Members of the Sunni Muslim majority have also been victims of similar attacks in predominantly Shia areas, the report adds.
Last December, a Sri Lankan national working in the Pakistani province of Punjab was killed and then burned by a mob after being accused of committing blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad.
