Author: Vivek Deshpande
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 1, 2002
A Prominent leader of the Pakistani
Hindu community, Sudham Chand Chawla, who successfully fought a legal battle
to ensure voting rights for Pakistani minorities, was shot dead by unidentified
assailants in the Pakistani city of Jacobabad on Monday.
This was revealed by relatives of
the slain leader to mediapersons here.
Pakistani newspapers such as The
News and The Dawn carried the news of the killing which largely went unnoticed
in India. A pall of gloom descended on the Chawla residence here when his
relatives heard it on BBC Radio the same night.
According to his brother Jagdish,
who resides here along with three other brothers, Chawla was scheduled
to meet the Jacobabad collector in connection with the electoral rolls
when he was shot dead.
The Pakistan Supreme Court had restored
voting rights to minorities a fortnight ago following Chawla's sustained
efforts.
"Some Muslim organisations, too,
helped him in his endeavour but the fundamentalists probably didn't like
it and hence killed him," he said. Chawla, 45, was president of the Hindu
General Panchayat and the Jacobabad district chief of Pakistan People's
Party (PPP). He was one of the prominent Hindu leaders and was popular
among Muslims too.
Thousands gathered at his residence
and Jacobabad observed an impromptu bandh when the news of his death spread.
Hindus staged a highway blockade which was eased after the administration
promised to nab the culprits.
"Sindh traders observed a three-day
bandh to protest the killing," Chawla's son Santosh said. Sudham Chand,
who owned a rice mill, is survived by his widow, a son and a six-month-old
daughter in Pakistan and three sons, Santosh, Manoj and Inder who moved
to Nagpur a few years ago.
One of his brothers Kanwarlal is
in Jacobabad while four brothers, Jagdish, Ashok, Kishor and Daulat, had
left Pakistan 25 years ago to settle down in Nagpur. Sudham Chand was the
eldest. His mother, too, is here for the past one year while his father
is dead.
According to family members here,
Chawla had moved the Pakistan SC three years ago seeking restoration of
voting rights to minorities. "He was helped by people such as former speaker
of Pakistan's National Assembly Elahi Bukhsh Soomro," Jagdish said. "He
also valiantly fought for restoration of land which rightfully belonged
to the Hindus," he said.
Sudham Chand was elected a corporator
in Jacobabad first in 1983 and then in 1987. In 1990, he bacame president
of the Jacobabad PPP and in 1994 became its district chief. In 1996, during
Benazir Bhutto's reign, he was named the chief of Upper Sindh unit of the
PPP, according to family members.
"His killing has created a feeling
of insecurity among Pakistan Hindus and the Government of India should
do something about it," Jagdish said.
