Hindu businessman shot dead in Pakistan

Islamabad: Sutan Lal Dewan, 50, a Hindu businessman, was gunned down when he was returning home from a cotton factory in Daharki town of Ghotki. One of his relatives was also injured in the attack. In fact, this was the second attempt on Lal’s life. He had posted a video on social media after the first attack, appealing to law enforcement authorities to protect him from people who were threatening to kill him.
In the video, he alleged that his nephew and his four accomplices attacked him over a land dispute. Lal had said the attackers told him to leave Pakistan and settle in India. “Despite threats, I would live and die in my native Sindh,” Lal could be heard as saying in the clip. “I filed a report about the attack and threats, but police haven’t taken any action,” Lal had said in the video.
The murder in Ghotki district of Pakistan’s Sindh province, highlights the plight of minorities as police had ignored the man’s calls drawing attention to death threats after a previous attack that left him gravely wounded. The murder triggered protests in several towns of Ghotki, with Hindus, traders and human rights groups staging demonstrations. A complete shutdown was also observed in the towns of Daharki, Pano Aqil and Mirpur Mathello to mourn his death. Traffic was disrupted as protesters put his body on the highway, demanding speedy justice.
Lal’s shooting followed the murder of a Christian priest in Peshawar recently. “Yesterday it was a
Christian and today a Hindu. Minorities are among the most vulnerable here,” the minority wing of the main opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ( PML-N) tweeted in response to Lal’s murder. Krishan Sharma from PM Imran Khan’s PTI party blamed the provincial government of Sindh for failing to protect religious minorities.