Fear gave way to anger among the Hindu community in Sindh province yesterday after gunmen killed a doctor and two businessmen and wounded another person on Monday during an attack on a clinic in Chak.

Following the killings, which took place during the major Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha, the community initially refused to talk to police after receiving death threats, but their outrage boiled over yesterday.

“Stop blatant terrorism” and “Arrest the real culprits” were just some of the slogans angry protestors shouted yesterday as they placed the bodies of the victims in front of the press club in Sukkur.

Hundreds of protesters joined Hindu leaders and blocked roads for 30 minutes before holding funerals for the dead near a temple by the Indus River.

“We are in despair, the situation is becoming more dangerous even though we have been trying to co-exist peacefully,” said Nand Lal Pajwani, one of the protestors.

The motive for the attack is unclear, but the Hindu community had recently been in talks with local Muslims for about two weeks over an alleged sexual assault on a girl by a Hindu.

We even paid a lot of compensation money, Pajwani said.

President Asif Ali Zardari has voiced concern over the attack and called for the gunmen to face justice.

“It is the moral and legal responsibility of the government to protect members of minority communities,” the president’s spokesperson said.

Around 94 percent of Pakistan’s two million Hindus live in Sindh province. Their numbers have dropped dramatically amid inter-religious violence in recent years.

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