COVID-19: Minority community in Sindh appeals for aid denied by Pakistan

Sindh [Pakistan], April 19 (ANI): Minority communities in Sindh have appealed to influential people and governments to provide them food aid as Pakistan is not providing them proper assistance during the ongoing crisis triggered by coronavirus spread.
In video message uploaded on The Rise News, a Sindh-based independent non-profit digital news outlet, Vindo Kumar, and Tando M. Khan, people belong to the minority community in Sindh, have urged the international community to provide people with food aid as they have no assistance, nor they able to earn during this period of crisis.
“My community people are very worried due to the coronavirus outbreak. We are minorities here. We mostly work as contract labourers or in small shops of barbers and vendors,” Kumar was heard saying in the video.
As of April 18, Pakistan has 7,481 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The country recorded 23 coronavirus-related deaths within 24 hours on Friday. This development came at the same time as the Pakistan government’s announcement that it is considering a partial lifting of the nationwide lockdown in order to allow some businesses to run.
Several media outlets have also reported that the Pakistani establishment has been discriminating against the minorities and not providing them adequate aid at a time when the entire world is uniting to fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The governments of several provinces have issued orders to distribute ration through local NGOs and administration to daily wage workers and labourers amid lockdown imposed to stem the growth of the contagion. The distribution of food supplies was supposed to be organised by the local government in collaboration with the district government. But minority groups have regularly complained that the aid is not reaching them despite nudging the local authorities. (ANI)