72 Hindu couples marry in Karachi

Karachi: As many as 72 Hindu couples joined in matrimony during a mass wedding ceremony organised by the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) at the Railway Ground here on Sunday evening.

Every year, for the last 14 years, MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankvani, who is also the PHC patron-in-chief, has been organising mass weddings for poor Hindu couples who cannot afford a big wedding for themselves on the their own. The couples in their wedding finery reached the ground by afternoon and sat waiting in 10 by 10 feet wide enclosures, or ‘mandap’ as they are called, in two long rows inside one huge white tent.

They were there with their parents, siblings, their families. In the front of the huge tent was a stage where the model couple were to be married and who the rest in their enclosures were to follow every step of the way by watching on two big screens placed near the aisles. Most of the couples had travelled from Sindh. There were couples from Mithi, Mirpukhas, Hyderabad, etc. There were also many who belonged to Karachi. —Agencies