Hindu Workers barred from entering factory in Karachi

KARACHI: About 40 Hindu employees of a factory in Karachi, one of whose same faith colleagues was killed for allegedly passing blasphemous remarks about Prophet Mohammed, have been barred from entering their place of work after some members of the community tried to register a case regarding the murder.

The workers are all residents of Marwari Mohalla and neighbours of 22-year-old Jagdish Kumar, who was killed on April 8 by his other colleagues in factory. They have been restricted from entering Nova Industries in the Korangi industrial area in Karachi by the factory’s management.

The move came after some members of the Hindu community tried to register a case regarding Jagdish’s death with police, Lyari town Minority Councillor Ratan Kumar said.

“Since Jagdish’s murder on April 8, the factory van has not come to pick the workers from this vicinity and the workers fear they have lost their jobs. They have been receiving reports from their Muslim co-workers that the management of the factory has fired them all in reaction to Jagdish’s alleged blasphemous remarks,” Ratan Kumar told a newspaper.

Heightening apprehensions in this regard is the fact that that no member of the factory’s management came to Jagdish’s house to condole his death, his family said. The Hindu workers from Marwai Mohalla also did not go to the factory last week to get their weekly wages.

Hindus in the Marwari Mohalla, home to about 2,000 registered voters, fear for their lives after the murder of Jagdish.

Ratan Kumar said most young men are now staying indoors as they fear “negative repercussions” after Jagdish’s death.

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