Pakistan's image takes a global beating on its I-Day

Several people from the oppressed minorities of Pakistan participated in a protest organized outside the Pakistan embassy in Washington Friday on the occasion of Pakistan Independence Day.

Demonstrators, holding banners and placards, chanted slogans against the state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan and urged the international community to take action against the "rogue" nation.

Dozens of Sindhis, Pashtuns, Balochs and people from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's Gilgit Baltistan participated in the rally pleading for freedom from Pakistan in the front of the country's embassay in the US where celebrations were being held on the occasion of Independence Day.

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Holding banners which read, 'Pakistan stop enforced disappearances', 'Pakistan Murdabaad', 'Free Balochistan', the minority communities of Pakistan also apprised the locals of growing human rights violations in Pakistan.

A similar protest was also held in Houston, Texas yesterday in which several Sindhis and Balochs participated protesting against the oppression, abductions, killings and forced conversions taking place back home in Pakistan.

Banners and placards here read: 'End Blashphemy Law', 'Pakistan, stop genocide in Balochistan', 'Stop genocide of Pakistani Sindhis', 'Stop forceful conversion of Sindhi Hindu girls'.

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Meanwhile, it wasn't just the US where protests were held against Pakistan yesterday. Several people, fed up with the atrocities committed against them by the Imran Khan-led government, took to the roads in the Sindh province of Pakistan.

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In faraway Kathmandhu, where the current Nepali government has been accused of siding with China, people gathered outside the Pakistani mission to protest against the demolishing of Buddha statues in Pakistan and the growing crimes against a handful of Hindu minority communities still remaining in Pakistan.

The protest was organized by a civil society group named 'Rastriya Ekata Abhiyan' and attracted lot of attention in the Nepali capital.

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It is not for the first time that protests against Pakistan have taken place in the United States or anywhere else in the world. The global community is very much aware of the shocking human rights situation in Pakistan currently where the minorities are constantly targeted and hundreds of abductions, killings, forced conversions and marriages take place every year.

Surprisingly, rather shamelessly, only a few days ago, on August 11, Pakistan had observed the National Minorities Day to "honor the services, the sacrifices and recognize the contribution of minorities in creation of Pakistan and nation-building."

Pakistan President Arif Alvi cut a cake at the President House in Islamabad, reiterating Pakistan's commitment to refrain from discriminating against minorities and to maintain an atmosphere of tolerance and brotherhood within the country and Shibli Faraz, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, tweeted that "the dream of the state of Medina will not be realized without welfare of the minorities."

Even on its Independence Day yesterday, there were several incidents of crimes reported against the minorities from several parts of Pakistan.

A 15-year-old Hindu girl Pathani was abducted by armed men in Sindh's Sufi Faqir village. Earlier this week, 61-year-old Meraj Ahmed, an Ahmadi, was shot dead near his medical store in Dabgari Gardens, Peshawar. Apparently, he and his brother were facing threats over their faith. He had also filed a complaint with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) about an online hate campaign..