Many protesters injured as police baton charge Hindu protesters

Many protesters sustained serious injuries after they were badly beaten by police in the Kashmore district of Pakistan's Sindh province.

The police action on the locals, majority of whom are Hindus took place when they were staging a protest on Wednesday against the failure of law enforcement agencies to recover hostages taken by bandits of Katcha areas in Kandhkot.

Purported videos and pictures of the incident shared on social media show protesters bleeding from injuries sustained on their heads and necks.

Huge sit-in protests are ongoing in the Kandhkot-Kashmore district against abductions. Reportedly, over one hundred people have been abducted from the area in the past five months.

Local reporter Balach Dashti Gudu in a video interview with The Centrum Media said, “Some one hundred people have been abducted in the past five months. Those taken hostage include both Hindus and Muslims. They are Pathans, Sindhis, Punjabi and Baloch also. They are abducting them for ransom”.

“People have stopped sending their children to school due to fear,” says Gudu.

According to ARY News, protesters have refused to end their sit-in despite baton-charge by police. They said they will continue their protest until the recovery of the last hostage.

A large number of Hindu businessmen living in Kashmore district remain easy targets of riverine bandits. Due to rising crimes against the people of minority communities, the markets in the district remained closed.

Protesters have alleged that the police connived with dacoits to carry out the abductions. Molvi Jamaluddin Augahi told Pakistan daily Tribune, “If the police get some of the kidnapped persons released under pressure of the protests, the kidnappers will abduct them again or others in the coming days”.

After the police assault on protesters in Kashmore district, similar protests have erupted in Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Ghotki, Umerkot and other districts of Pakistan. (ANI)