ISLAMABAD: A flash of lightning killed six Hindu pilgrims and injured nine others on Sunday evening in Tharparkar district in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, a report by the district’s deputy commissioner said.

According to the deputy commissioner’s report, the pilgrims were struck by lightning at village Sathaar near Mithi, Tharparkar’s capital, while they were on their way to Verhijhap village in district Diplo. Verijhap is home to the famous Hindu monastery Parbrahm Ashram, where an annual festival attracts Hindus in large numbers from Pakistan’s Sindh and southwestern Balochistan provinces.

“Today on 29th May 2023, at about 9:40 PM, a group of pedestrian pilgrims proceeding to Faqir Parbirham Verijhap, 06 persons died along with 9 injured at the spot when lightening triggered by a cloudburst struck a caravan of pedestrian near village Sataar Taluka Mithi,” the report said.

The deputy commissioner said police brought the bodies and the injured to the Civil Hospital Mithi. He said the injured were provided first aid, adding that their condition was stable and would be discharged soon.

“It is requested to kindly move the Relief Department, Sindh, to compensate the bereaved families as the deceased belong to very poor Hindu families of Mithi district Tharparkar,” the deputy commissioner wrote.

As per the report, the deceased included males in the 16-35 age group and were residents of Mithi and Sathaar villages while the injured were also males in the age group of 12-40 who hailed from the villages of Sathaar, Dharar, and Harjani in Sindh.

Before 1947, India and Pakistan were under British colonial rule for over two centuries. The partition of 1947 created the newly independent states of Pakistan and India, with partition etching a deep fissure in the region as millions of Muslims migrated from India to Pakistan while Hindus and Sikhs in large numbers left for India with their families and belongings.

Around 4 million Hindus still live in Pakistan, or about 1.9 percent of the country’s population, and 1.4 million are in Sindh. Pakistan houses prominent Hindu temples that host annual festivals where devotees worship their deities, such as the centuries-old cave temple of Hinglaj Mata in southwestern Pakistan where thousands of Hindus flock each year in April to attend a four-day religious festival.