Pakistan: Hindu youth Dileep Kohli found dead, body hung from a tree

Kot Ghulam Muhammad, Sindh-
A Hindu young man Dileep Kohli was found dead, his body hanging from a tree in village Mori, Kot Ghulam Muhammad, Sindh. His body had blackened marks & signs of old beatings, while his feet revealed being chained.

Young Dileep, it was revealed, was forced to do gruesome manual labor in the fields of a local Muslim landlord, due to Dileep’s inability to repay an old loan. Though it was not clear whether Dileep had committed suicide or he was killed & his murder staged as a suicide, one can easily infer on death being the only escape and refuge for Hindu bonded laborers after complete shattering of their self-respect & dignity, with newer atrocity cases being reported everyday.

This case, too, exposes the grim reality of forced labor on Hindus and religious minorities in Islamic Pakistan, an age-old practice rooted in exploitation and oppression in this country. Countless similar incidents still remain unreported, trapping vulnerable Hindus & other religious minorities in cycles of suffering and silence.

Powerful Muslim landlords, often shielded by political connections, exploit poor Hindus with impunity. An informative documentary on the inhumane conditions of forced & bonded labor (“State of bonded labour in Pakistan”; BBC Urdu, 27th Feb. 2023) revealed that all bonded laborers were chained in iron shackled, weighing upto 20 kg & made to do hard manual labor, which could also be seen from the marks on Dileep’s feet.

In fact, the documentary stated that between 2020 and 2023, 5000 bonded laborers, including little kids, (all religious minorities) were freed from private prisons of Muslim landlords, factory owners, etc on the orders of local courts, only in Sindh. One can only imagine the sheer number of Hindu bonded laborers in the rest of Islamic Pakistan.

Disclaimer: Due to state restrictions in Pakistan, independent follow-ups on such incidents are challenging.