WASHINGTON DC: April 9, 2012. (Ahmar Mustikhan) The premier American Friends of Balochistan has called upon the U.S. government to impose stiff sanctions against Pakistan for gross violations of human rights of Hindus and Christians in Pakistan. In a Press release the A.F.B. said it fully supports the upcoming rally to win freedom for Rinkel Kumari, 19, a Hindu girl who was abducted, forced to convert and marry a Muslim man in Pakistan under the shadow of bayonets. On Saturday, April 14, a rally is being organized by a coalition of U.S. grassroots organizations to support human rights and dignity for Hindus and Christians in Pakistan. The event will be from 1:30 to 3:30 PM at in front of the U.S.-Pakistan Business Council across the street from Lafayette Square Park in downtown Washington DC. Organizations represented in the protest coalition, among others, will include Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), Pakistan Christian Congress, and American Friends of Balochistan. The Hindu American Foundation has issued an online petition to U.S. Secretary of State Clinton, for those concerned about human rights to sign, calling for the U.S. Government to intervene on behalf of Hindu girls kidnapped and forced to deny their religious beliefs. The coalition objects to the efforts to deny universal human rights and dignity to religious minorities in Pakistan. As reported by human rights groups, there are hundreds of abductions and forced conversion cases of Hindus and Christian women every year in Pakistan which go unreported. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in its latest report released last month said on an average around 20 to 25 Hindu girls are being forcibly converted to Islam every month in the southern Sindh province, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said. Christian women also face similar conversions on a massive scale. “Hindus and Christian females are made to embrace Islam and forced into sexual slavery by the mullahs of Pakistan who enjoy the military’s support,” the A.F.B. said in its Press release. “The A.F.B. stands in solidarity with the oppressed Hindus and Christians of Pakistan and demands that all human rights violators must be brought to justice.” The A.F.B. said all future aid to Pakistan must be tied to the undoing of the blasphemy law that is aimed to deny the Hindus and Christians their basic human rights. “It is regrettable that Pakistan is officially an Islamic Republic, where only a Muslim can become the head of government or head of state,” the A.F.B. said. According to the BBC report, “Human rights activists say that other reported abductions of members of minority communities in Pakistan, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, have not been properly investigated by the authorities.” The Pakistan Tribune also reports on Hindu and Christian girls who have been forcibly converted to Islam. The population of Hindus and Christians in Pakistan stood at 15 percent at the time of the 1947 partition holocaust but over the last six decades it has decimated to just three percent in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. When: Saturday, April 14, from 1:30 to 3:30 PM Where: on the sidewalk area outside 1615 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20062 – in front of the U.S.-Pakistan Business Council and across the street from Lafayette Square Park. The venue is a short walking distance from either the Farragut West (Blue and Orange Lines) or Farragut North Metro (Red Line). About the A.F.B.: The A.F.B. is a grassroots, informal organization that groups together Baloch and Americans and this year succeeded in getting a historic resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on the right to self-determination for the Baloch people. The A.F.B was launched in the wake of the killing of Balochistan governor and chief minister Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti August 26, 2006.