Hindu youth killed amid Pakistani communal riots

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – A Hindu youth has been killed and another injured in Pakistan amid inter-communal riots, police said Wednesday.

The youth was killed by angry mobs in the remote Dharki district of the populous Sindh province, after accusations that a local Hindu man in a nearby village had burned pages of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

City police chief Masood Bangash confirmed a 17-year-old Hindu boy died after being shot during the attack and that the man accused of burning the Quran had been detained.

Pakistani English daily Dawn quoted unnamed locals saying the man was a drug addict but had converted to Islam and had been living in a mosque in recent months.

The provincial government deployed additional police and paramilitary forces to quell the tension in the district.

The local Hindu minority community has appealed to federal and state governments to protect them and their property.

Hindus are the second largest minority after Christians in Muslim-majority Pakistan, making up 2 percent of the total 180 million population with most living in Sindh province.