Heena Sharma Blog

At a time when India is fuming diplomatically at the conversion of two minor Hindu girls to Islam in the Sindh province of Pakistan, a look at the religious composition of Pakistan’s population shows that the Hindu population has increased exponentially over a three-decade period. Pakistan in 2017 conducted its first census since 1998. Before 1998, the census was last been held in 1981. According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the country’s population in 2017 was 207 million, growth of 146% from 1981. While Pakistan has not yet revealed the religious composition of its population in the latest census, the 1998 census pegged the population of Hindus at 2.1 million. In 1998, Hindus comprised 1.6 per cent of Pakistan’s population which made them the biggest minority group in the country. Assuming that the proportion of Hindus in Pakistan’s total population remained the same, the number of Hindus in Pakistan, according to its latest census, would be around 3.3 million. Since 1...

Country's top court refused to refer a dispute between religious groups over the ownership of land in the northern city of Ayodhya to a Constitution bench, setting the stage for the possibility of a verdict on the controversial site before next year’s election. A majority ruling by a three judge bench headed Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the court will only decide ownership of land and it didn’t see any need to review merits of a 1994 judgment which held that a mosque is not essential to the practice of Islam. Justice Abdul Nazeer dissented and said the matter should be referred to a larger number of judges. ALSO READ: Aadhaar, Ayodhya, adultery judgments to mark Misra's last week as CJI Hindu groups have said the medieval-era mosque at the disputed site was built over the ruins of a temple that marked the birthplace of their god, Lord Ram. Hindu mobs razed the 16th-century Babri mosque in 1992 triggering riots that killed at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslim...

The main door of the mosque in south of the city centre had been set on fire at about 3.45 am International News : A popular Gurdwara and a Mosque were set on fire in arson attacks at the same time in English city of Leeds with the police treating them as hate crimes, according to media report today. The Jamia Masjid Abu Huraira Mosque in Hardy Street, Beeston, was attacked, along with the Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha Gurdwara in Lady Pit Lane, the BBC reported. The main door of the mosque in south of the city centre had been set on fire at about 3.45 am (local time) on Tuesday. A few minutes later, the door of the Gurdwara was also set on fire, the report said. The Sikh Press Association said a bottle filled with petrol had been set alight at the doorstep of the Gurdwara, triggering a smoke alarm. Residents called the fire brigade and the police and the fire was quickly dealt with, they said. Detective Inspector Richard Holmes, of Leeds District CID, said: ...