Bharat Rakshak

All of us who have attended school in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan were taught at one point or the other that the white strip that runs down the flag stood for non-Muslims who make up an estimated three per cent or so of the population.

Now it seems this white is to be washed over with a shade of green that denies the existence of diversity in the country and closes the door of opportunity for citizens who practise a different faith. We may as well change our flag and give up the pretence that there is any space for minorities in our state.

One of the more insidious doings of the 18th Amendment has been to seal off the office of prime minister to non-Muslims by declaring that the post will be held by a Muslim. The presidency has, since 1956, already been reserved for Muslims alone. The original justification given for this was that the post was a symbolic one. While in the kind of state we live in today, there was little practical possibility of someone from a minority religious community moving into the office of prime minister, the existence of the theoretical possibility was important. Indeed it is ironic that this opening has been closed just as real authority has been shifted to the prime minister. It is also ironic that a measure aimed at strengthening democracy should reserve the most important political office in the land for a specific community. The exclusion of all other citizens is, after all, most blatantly undemocratic.

While insiders say the proposal came from the PML-N, the fact is that parties like the 'secular' ANP and the 'liberal' PPP are both guilty of going along with it. One of the legacies of the Zia age has been that, once a 'religious' tint has been placed over any item – no matter how rotten it may in reality be – no one dares speak out. It is true the ANP tabled a suggestion that the presidency be opened to all citizens; but, perhaps caught up in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa issue, it appears not to have noticed the still more damaging change in rules for the holding of the prime minister's office. It is also a fact that once change of this kind has been made, it is extremely hard to roll it back. Any attempt to do so would bring an outcry from the religious parties and other groups that back them. No political party has in recent years displayed the moral courage necessary to take on such groups. Indeed, already, on internet discussion forums, while an encouraging number of voices have spoken out against the measure, others have argued that it is justified for an 'Islamic' state to have only a Muslim at its head. A long time ago, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, a man who has for any meaningful purpose been virtually forgotten in the country he founded, had warned against states that discriminated or drew distinctions between one community and the other. Jinnah would be mortified to discover that this is precisely the kind of distorted state that Pakistan has become over the 63 years since it appeared on the map. Like Dorian Grey, it has become increasingly warped and twisted, even if these mutations are not always visible on the outside.

The message that the latest change sends out is a dangerous one. It comes at a time when we see at periodic intervals orgies of violence that involve the burning of houses belonging to non-Muslims or the torture of members of minority groups, often after charges of blasphemy have been brought. We have seen lynching carried out in public on these grounds. All around us we see in fact a kind of 'cleansing' on the basis of religion that should leave us ashamed. Hindus from Sindh – sometimes even from communities where they had lived in peaceful harmony with their Muslim neighbours for years – have been forced to flee to escape forced conversions or the kidnapping of their daughters. The few Sikh families who still lived in the tribal areas have been driven out of their homes by the Taliban following the imposition of 'jaziya' taxation on them. Christians have, since the 1980s, begun disappearing to escape discrimination; the names on school registers even at missionary-run institutions in Lahore reflect the change and the monolithic nature of the society we live in.

The attitudes that have created this are for a large part the product of state policies. The laws against Ahmadis, the separate electorate for minorities and the 'Islamisation' policies have all encouraged social and economic discrimination. Opportunities available to non-Muslims have closed down. Employers are less likely to grant them jobs or offer promotions; schools deny them admission. The Basant festival has been labelled as being 'Hindu' and, therefore, undesirable. Even the simple act of flying a kite has been given a religious overture. There can be little doubt this has been a factor in the ban on Basant and the sport of kite-flying that has led to the fluttering paper shapes vanishing from the skies over Lahore, a city that once observed the only secular festival on our calendar with unrivalled passion.

There is evidence too that the unpleasant process of creating a kind of sterile uniformity by rooting out diversity is growing. Muslim sects have confronted the wrath of those who hold they are non-Muslim. The mass killing of Shias in Karachi on two separate occasions as they marked Muharrum is just one example of this. Other groups have faced threats of many kinds. Some indeed, to protect themselves and their children, have chosen to disguise identity. Other groups, such as the small number of Jews who once lived in Karachi, have simply left the country.

The process is an immensely dangerous one. It has already created divisions that in the past simply did not exist. The result has been growing social unease. To create the harmony we so badly need it is vital to alter this, to create a state that treats all its citizens as equal and accepts that this is the true spirit of the democracy that is so often spoken of but rarely put into practice. The question is where we will find the leaders committed to such a vision for their nation.

Anujan wrote:IED Mubarak in Quetta. Outside a hospital in a procession.

Edit: Apparently Shias were targetted

41 killed in twin Kohat suicide bombings

Sunday, April 18, 2010
65 hurt as bombers target IDPs registration facility

By Syed Yasir Shah

KOHAT: Two back-to-back suicide bombings at a registration centre for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Kacha Pakha area of Kohat district on Saturday killed at least 41 people, including a journalist, and injured 65 others........................

A dreaded militant organisation of Punjabi Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami, has claimed responsibility for the two consecutive suicide attacks in Kohat.

“We claim responsibility for the two Fidayee (suicide) attacks in Kohat. The Shia community was in fact our target that our two Fidayeen (suicide bombers) achieved,” explained a caller, who introduced himself as Usman Haider, a spokesman for the outlawed outfit.

The two suicide bombers were aged between 17-20 years. Both of them were clad in traditional Burqas when they entered the registration camp and blew themselves up with deafening explosions, causing extensive damage.

The spokesman for the militant organisation said they had planned the attack a few days ago and selected two of their men for the job. He claimed their organisation had attacked the Shia community in the past and would continue similar attacks on them in future as well. .................

Before attempted abduction of groom’s mother, Muslims accused Christians of kidnapping.
SARGODHA, Pakistan, April 19 (CDN) — Family members of a Muslim woman who married a Roman Catholic here have threatened to kidnap the groom’s mother and sister and kill the newlyweds and other relatives, the Christian family members said.

Muslims have heavily bribed police to allow the crimes, sources told the Christian family.

The brothers of Sadia Bashir, the 22-year-old Muslim woman who married the Christian, issued the same threats most recently on April 12, said her father, Mushtaq Bhatti. After the young couple wed in court on May 16, the Muslim family accused the groom, 24-year-old Jibran Masih, and his mother and father of kidnapping, for which they languished in jail for several months last year.

Masih, his mother Nargis Bibi and Bhatti could have been sentenced to death, a life sentence or a fine had the Lahore High Court not declared them innocent in December.

The more than half a million forsaken people in Kurram Agency continue to bear the brunt of sectarian violence, increasing Talibanisation and apathy of the Pakistani government. Though the people of Kurram are no strangers to sectarian violence, they have never seen so much long-lasting bloodshed since the creation of Pakistan. Previous sectarian clashes that would occur every five to seven years never lasted for more than two to three weeks, as the tribal leaders and Pakistani government would always intervene. But the situation has taken a nasty twist since the arrival of the Taliban in the area three years ago, and 3,100 people have been killed since July 2007.

Pakistani authorities have, so far, failed in controlling the persistent violence and have failed in opening the major Parachinar-Peshawar road on a permanent basis. This road has remained closed for the last two years except when heavily escorted food convoys travel on it. Even these convoys are not safe. In the first week of March, a fleet of food trucks and some buses, escorted by security forces, was attacked by suicide bombers, killing 14 and injuring another 25 people. In the last week of March, six truck drivers who were returning from carrying goods to the Shia communities of Upper Kurram, were kidnapped and killed by the Taliban. A letter found in the pocket of one dead driver warned that anyone supplying goods to the Parachinar Shiite community would meet a similar fate. Similarly, a military vehicle on its way from Tal to Parachinar was hit by an IED in the third week of April, killing four paramilitary personnel and injuring another five.

In this situation, the Shiite community, as a whole, and some Sunni tribes like the Mangal in Upper Kurram find it extremely difficult and risky to move out of Kurram Agency. Shias cannot travel outside the agency through the Tal-Parachinar road connecting Kurram Agency with Peshawar as it is controlled by the Taliban. There are no PIA flights to the only airport of the area, located in Parachinar. There is only one four-seater private jet that charges Rs 10,000 for a quick flight from Parachinar to Peshawar and potential passengers have to wait for at least one month to get a seat on it. Both the Shia and Sunni people of Kurram Agency have to travel through war-torn Afghanistan to reach Peshawar and other parts of Pakistan. There is a severe shortage of life-saving drugs and the basic commodities needed for everyday life. Even if some items are available, they are extremely expensive. Many government servants have gone unpaid for the last two years and some have even committed suicide because of the difficult life and lack of financial resources.

Many natives of the Kurram Agency blame state policies regarding Afghanistan for the death and destruction in their area. According to them when the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) strengthened its posts on the border with Waziristan in 2006-07 — after the Pakistani government signed peace accords with the local Taliban — al Qaeda and Taliban fighters tried to pass through the Kurram Agency to cross over into Afghanistan; Kurram providing the shortest route to Kabul. The Turi tribe and other Shias declined to give passage to the Taliban through their area and complained to the local authorities who, unfortunately, did not take any action. The Taliban attacked the Turi to punish them for their refusal to provide them a safe passage, an act that has led to the current dire situation of the Turis. Both Shia and Sunni elders also hold government officials responsible for contributing to the ongoing tensions in Kurram, particularly in Parachinar, the capital of the agency. Shia elders assert that two political agents of the area asked them to facilitate the Taliban’s movements or be ready for the consequences. {This is significant}

To defend themselves against the Taliban, all of the Kurram tribes have established their own lashkars (tribal militias), but these lashkars are no match for the better-financed, well-armed and well-trained Taliban. On March 20, 2010, Taliban forces attacked the Masozai tribal lashkar to avenge the death of 12 of their colleagues who were killed a day earlier when the lashkar attacked the convoy of Taliban commander Mullah Toofan. After several hours of fighting in which 15 persons were killed and around 20 were injured from both sides, the local tribal lashkar was left with no option but to surrender to the Taliban. The Taliban accepted their surrender with the condition that the tribal elders would be loyal to the Taliban, would dismantle the current lashkar, would never raise another anti-Taliban lashkar in the area again and would support the Taliban’s efforts in implementing Shariah. After these guarantees and promises, Mullah Toofan freed 22 hostages taken from the Masozai lashkar.

Jeehamd Shahija Marri was a notorious cattle rustler in the Pat Feeder area in the 1950s and 60s; he used to narrate his exploits about the risks they had to take and the distances they had to walk. He would recount that after reaching a relatively safe place after a continuous quick walk of 10 to 12 hours, they would rest but be unable to sit as their knees refused to bend and they had to drop themselves on the ground and massage their muscles back to life.

It was in 1963 that a bulldozer constructing a road from Talli to Kahan was attacked and he was picked up as a suspect and severely tortured. He was hung from his hair — as the Marris sport long hair — but he resisted the torture and refused to wrongly admit to the alleged crime. On release he joined the Farrars (Rebels). He was above 70 years of age when the army action began in the Marri area in May 1973 and led guerrilla units surpassing the younger lot in endurance and tenacity. He was a role model for his bravery and toughness.

On February 27, 2005, when Musharraf ruled the roost, the New Kahan camp — where the Marris after their return from Afghanistan in 1992 had been settled — was raided by 1,500 policemen under the supervision of the Quetta DIG Pervez Rafi Bhatti. Many innocent people were arrested and claims of weapons recovery made, but to top it all off the Pakistani flag was hoisted on what the police termed as the ‘fort’ of Nawab Khair Baksh Marri, an easy alternative to Delhi’s ‘Lal Qilla’, which they have always yearned for. I do not know the exact numbers but after the raid many decided to throw in their lot with the Farrars. It was raided again in March 2006, then once more in November, each time adding recruits to the Farrars.

The meek and ineffective provincial governments by implication connive with the brutalities perpetrated against the Baloch population and the present incumbents have often openly admitted that the FC runs a ‘parallel government’. The law and order situation is bad in Karachi but one does not see the crackdowns, except in Lyari, that Balochistan suffers.

When in mid-June 2007 seven army men were killed in an ambush in Quetta, a search operation was carried out in which a lot of people were arrested from Qilli Qambarani, Qilli Ismail and other places. Hundreds of search operations have been carried out in Quetta and its environs and numerous other places in Balochistan but they have not improved the law and order situation by an iota.

These searches should not be thought of as ones where the rights of the suspects are read out and they are given the benefit of being ‘innocent until proven guilty’. These search operations are violent, brutish and rough in the extreme, aimed at intimidating and humiliating the people in order to deter them from supporting the struggle for rights, but this aim is never achieved.

The residents are presumed guilty and the ferocity and brutality of the execution of searches is inversely proportional to the resistance and resentment displayed by the people. Those, mostly the young, on whom the axe invariably falls, are manhandled if they resist and bundled into waiting vehicles and driven away to camps and prisons; needless to say without due process of law and without recourse to justice.

On April 20, a massive crackdown was carried out by the LEAs in Quetta and environs, Qilli Ismail, Kechi Baig, Qilli Qambarani, Sariab, Qilli Sarday and Wali Jat. All day long the homes belonging to the Baloch were searched, people taken into custody blindfolded and whisked away. Naturally the people resisted and there were scuffles and fights during which a lady, Shahnaz Bibi, mother of BNP activist Sanaullah Mengal, was killed. Women too are fair game for harsh treatment. Eyewitnesses say that around 300 people were taken into custody though the mainstream media reported only 100 arrests.

They were suspected of bomb blasts, kidnappings, target killings and other violent crimes that occur frequently in Quetta in spite of hundreds of search operations that have taken place in the past. Incidentally, the same Qilli Qambarani, Qilli Ismail and other places were searched after the killings of seven army men in June 2007 but apparently that crackdown failed to eliminate the suspected ‘troublemakers’. Each subsequent crackdown is more brutal than the last one.

If brutal crackdowns and search operations of suspected areas had any success in deterring people from struggling for their national, political, social and economic rights, then dear readers, Algeria would still have been a French colony because the French forces there were brutal, ruthless and unforgiving. They picked up people, kept them in custody and tortured them as long as they wanted but in the end they had to pack up and leave because neither the resistance nor the will of the people could be broken.

It is said that the French with ruthless disregard for Algerian lives won the Battle of Algiers by destroying the FLN there in 1957, but lost the War for Algeria when the people rose up as a whole in 1960, proving the futility of repression. During the February 29, 1980 people’s opposition to the Soviet forces in Kabul, I was stranded outside the city during the night but entered the city next morning, which is also an example. Eventually, repression makes the people fearless and compels them to utterly disregard their own safety.

Such crackdowns are counter-productive and carrying them out adds fuel to the fire. A suspect or two may be nabbed but when hundreds are antagonised in the process, the likes of Jeehamd Shahija, Dr Allah Nazar and others willingly join the Farrars. The term ‘Farrar’ may be seen with distaste by others but for a Baloch it conjures glorifying images and is the ultimate dream of many a Baloch youth.

I spent 20 years with the Marri tribe and have contacts with a cross-section of Baloch people from different tribes and areas and can say with authority that this senseless brutality cannot and will not be able to break the will and resilience of the Baloch people. The Battle for Algiers may have been won but more and more Baloch, both old and young, as a result of repression will join up with the Farrars or work clandestinely to help them succeed.

Christians bewildered by Muslim violence in Pakistan
Friday, April 30, 2010
By Martin Barillas

Daily incidents of violence such as rape, abduction, and torture of Christians appears to be coutenanced with official indifference in Pakistan.

On April 28, in Quetta (Baluchistan), a Christian, Zulfiqar Gulzar, was killed by unidentified persons on the street. His community, bewildered by the violence, is seeking justice.

On the same day, in the city of Sargodha in Punjab, a 29-year-old Christian barber, Marwat Masih, was beaten by a group of conservative Muslims, who accused him of having cut off the beard of a young Muslim who had come into his shop asking him to trim it.

Also recently, in Punjab in the town of Murree, the girls' school St. Deny's Girls High School, run by the Protestant Church of Pakistan was set on fire. Investigations have indicated the responsibility of the Muslim fundamentalist groups (the so-called "Pakistani Taliban") who deny education to girls and wish to eliminate Christian social work, as seen in the attacks that occurred last March on the NGO offices of the Christian-based "World Vision" and a Salesian school in Baluchistan.

In the capital Islamabad, meanwhile, some NGOs are protesting another case of violence against a Christian girl, after the widely-publicized case of Shazia. This time, the victim is Sumera Pervaiz, a 14-year-old who worked as a maid in the house of Faheem Cheema, a commander in the Pakistani Air Force. Accused, without proof, of stealing some jewelry, Sumera was placed in isolation, beaten, and tortured for five days to extract a confession that the girl, who was innocent, did not give. She is now hospitalized and in danger of losing the use of her legs. ................................

Source: FIDES

Martin Barillas is a former US diplomat, who also worked as a democracy advocate and election observer in Latin America.

Spero News

"The Sharifs are creating a potential bomb here in Punjab," said Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, who was appointed by the national government. "These [militant] groups are armed and dangerous. There is no way you can accommodate these people. There has to be zero tolerance."

In recent weeks, a spate of armed robberies and kidnappings of the Ahmedi sect in the city of Faisalabad was traced to members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the group previously known as Lashkar-e-Taiba that was blamed for the devastating 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai. Three Ahmedis were also shot dead, thought to be the work of the same group.

Sharif's opponents accuse his party, the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N – whose support comes partly from the religious right – of accommodating extremists such as Sipah-e-Sahaba, a banned sectarian group blamed for the deaths of hundreds of Shias.

In Jhang town, a byelection last month saw Sharif's party openly court Sipah-e-Sahaba supporters. Punjab's law minister, Rana Sanaullah, was pictured on the campaign trail with the alleged head of the group, Ahmed Ludhianvi.

Experts believe that the Pakistani Taliban is deeply influenced by Sipah-e-Sahaba, with the Taliban's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, a former member.

Sheikh Waqas Akram, an opposition member of parliament from Jhang, which is the headquarters of Sipah-e-Sahaba, likened the situation in Punjab to the Swat valley, where official inaction allowed the Taliban to take over in 2008. "There can be 10 Swats in Punjab, if you don't check them [extremists]," said Akram.

But Sanaullah denied the claims, saying that while banned groups operated in the province there was no "Talibanisation" in Punjab. "Not a single street where you can say there is a no-go area," he said.

Sanaullah said that groups based in the north-west were behind the terrorist attacks in Punjab, not local organisations, adding that "95% of the people of Sipah-e-Sahaba are not terrorists". He said: "We must persuade these persons to put aside their guns, to participate in elections. They have the right to vote, so why can't I ask them [Sipah-e-Sahaba] for votes?"

Over the last year the affluent Ahmedi community in Faisalabad has been rocked by a campaign of violence and intimidation, which intensified in recent weeks. Ahmedi are classified as non-Muslims under Pakistani law, for believing that Muhammad was not the final prophet.

Police arrested four suspects last month. Three days later, on 1 April, three members of an Ahmedi family were shot dead as they returned from work. Their car was sprayed with bullets, in what police believe was a "very professional" hit and possible revenge for the arrests.

"The four people in jail are in Jamaat-ud-Dawa," said senior Faisalabad police officer Abid Hussain. "They told us that they got a decree from a maulvi (priest) in their group that says that robbing, kidnapping and killing Ahmedis is allowed and would be rewarded in heaven."

The city's Ahmedi community have restricted their movements and some have hired bodyguards.

"We are now scared to leave the house, when the door bell rings, we are frightened about who might be there. Outside, we feel always like someone is following us," said Mohammad Iqbal Ahmed, whose son and nephew were kidnapped in March and returned after the payment of a £20,000 ransom.

arun wrote:In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the self proclaimed safe haven for the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent, events have come to such a pass that the minority Muslim Shia sect feels the need to protest “Genocide” perpetrated against them by the majority fellow Muslim Sunni sect:

Monday, January 11, 2010

Shias warn of countrywide protest against ‘genocide’

KARACHI: The Shia community staged demonstrations on Sunday to protest against the genocide of Shias across Pakistan and a possible witch-hunt against the youth. The Shia scholars warned of a countrywide protest against the brutalities being committed against Shias all over Pakistan and strongly condemned the raids on houses - violating the sanctity of their homes - harassment of women and children, arrests of innocent youths and merciless torture............................

They said the Pakistani government took no action against the terrorists who perpetrated the genocide against the Shias through terrorism in mosques, imambargahs and congregations, and at sacred processions and other places..........................

Daily Times

arun wrote:The butchering of Muslims of the Ahmadiyya sect for belonging to the wrong variant of Islam in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is par for the course.

What is odd is that there is no mention of this butchery in the Pakistani media.

Come to think of it, I recollect no reporting of the persecution of Muslims of the Ahmadiyya sect in Pakistan by the Pakistani media for quite some time. I wonder if this because of inattentiveness on my part or if there is a media blackout on reporting atrocities inflicted on Muslims of the Ahmadiyya sect in the Islamic republic of Pakistan ?. :

Thursday, 7 January 2010, 3:35 pm
Press Release: Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: A Retired Ahmadi Professor Murdered In Punjab Province

It is with great sadness that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat confirms that another member of its community, Retired Professor Muhammad Yusuf (aged 70) was killed earlier today by two masked gunmen in Lahore.

At around 7.30am, Professor Yusuf was tending his son's grocery shop near his own home in Rachna Town when two masked persons drove up to the shop on motorbikes. They immediately fired two shots at Professor Yusuf and thereafter fled the scene. ………………………

The Jamaat has faced a great deal of opposition in the Rachna Town area and this opposition has markedly increased in recent times. Banners are seen around the area stating that Ahmadis are 'Wajibul Qatl' that is that they ought to be killed. Further, a number of anti-Ahmadi rallies have taken place in the area inciting others to violently oppose and harass all Ahmadis. One such rally took place yesterday. A number of Ahmadis in the area had also faced death threats. Police have been made aware of all such incidents yet no action has been forthcoming. …………………….

Last year 11 Ahmadis were killed in Pakistan for no other reason than that they belonged to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat. This new year of 2010 is not even a week old and already the blood of another Ahmadi has been shed. ……………………

Scoop

arun wrote:The Shia of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan at the receiving end of a one two strike today:

Karachi Terrorists Bomb the Wounded at a Hospital

The Two Bombs Targeted Shiites in Karachi, Killing at Least 20

By NICK SCHIFRIN
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 5, 2010

Two bomb attacks -- the first on a group of Shiite mourners and the second outside the hospital where the injured mourners were taken -- have killed about 20 people and injured at least 75 in the Pakistani city of Karachi, according to initial reports. ..............................

The first bomb exploded next to a bus full of Shiite mourners driving toward a procession in downtown Karachi. Shortly after, a second bomb targeted the injured, ripping through a group of emergency workers, journalists, and the wounded outside the hospital closest to the first explosion. ..............................

ABC News

Unfulfilled commitments
Dawn Editorial
Tuesday, 11 May, 2010 ………………….

A case in point is the promise of compensation and medical treatment to the victims of the twin blasts in Karachi in February, when a bus carrying Shia mourners was bombed. This was followed by a powerful explosion at the hospital where the dead and injured had been taken. Soon after the tragedy, the government announced that all hospital expenses incurred by the injured would be borne by the state and for a while it did shoulder the expenses. But, according to a report in this paper, last month medical facilities were withdrawn halfway through treatment. The government, it seems, was unable to honour its commitment. Those who could not afford to pay were discharged even though their treatment was incomplete. One can only imagine the trauma of the affected people. …………………..

Dawn

Mastung: Two more Shia Muslims martyred

SFP News
14th May 2010

It was about 10 AM when two Shia Muslims named Abdul Samad Lehri and Babu Hassan Shaikh Alizai were martyred on DCO Road in Mastung District of Baluchistan. The both victims were converted to Shia while their family members belong to Sunni Sect.

It was not just killing but killers raised slogans against Shiite and both victims were buried without any coffin, ablution (Ghusil) and Namaz-e-Janaza. It was a bitter human rights violation but media and so called human right institutes are unvoiced. Law enforcement agencies are silent spectators. Because of the silence of local authorities terrorists are encouraged. …………………..

Jafaria News

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Cleric accused of kidnapping, converting Hindu girl

* Radha’s family claim she was forcibly converted in madrassa
* Police ignoring family’s complaints, say they should forget about the girl

By Afnan Khan

LAHORE: The leader of a madrassa allegedly abducted a minor Hindu girl from Rahim Yar Khan and did not let her parents meet their daughter, claiming that the girl had converted to Islam and no longer wanted to meet her “non-Muslim relatives”.

Radha (13) was abducted in December 2009, her parents told Daily Times, adding that they had “knocked on every door stretching from the president of Pakistan to Punjab chief minister and chief secretary, but to no avail”. “Local police, including the former and current district police officers of Rahim Yar Khan, are supporting the people who abducted Radha and are neither registering a first information report (FIR) against the accused, nor are they taking any action to recover the girl from the custody of Abdul Jabbar and Naveed,” they alleged. ………………….

Daily Times

dewanand wrote:If I read all these stories of oppression in Pakistan then I get the feeling that there is some sort of Apartheid in this country, but on one is talking about it. Why is no one talking about the Apartheid in Pakistan? I do not understand this anymore. Is this the cruel world we live in?

Islamic power is growing all over the world and HIndu men are so afraid to do something against this. Why are Hindu men so weak and afraid?

Dewanand

Friday's gruesome attacks on Ahmadi worshippers in Lahore were a tragic reminder of the growing intolerance that is threatening to destroy our social fabric. Bigotry in this country has been decades in the making and is expressed in a variety of ways. Violence by individuals or groups against those who hold divergent views may be the most despicable manifestation of such prejudice but it is by no means the only one. Religious minorities in Pakistan have not only been shunted to the margins of society but also face outright persecution on a regular basis.

Take the police force, which is notorious for terrorising the poor. Even within that section of society, however, it reserves its harshest treatment for non-Muslims, for the simple reason that brutal or coercive acts directed against minorities are even less likely to get policemen into trouble. There is no shortage of more insidious means of discrimination either. To this day many job applications require candidates to state their religion. Has the irrelevance of this query never struck the organisations in question, or is it part of a screening process designed to weed out ‘undesirables’? Now let’s venture down to the basic building blocks of society, from institutions to households. In many middle-class and affluent Muslim homes, separate eating utensils of distinctly poorer quality are reserved for domestic staff. But there’s more: a further distinction in entitlement is made between Muslim and non-Muslim employees.

None of this is surprising in a country whose statute books are riddled with discriminatory laws, where jingoism is drummed into the heads of schoolchildren and where radio and television talk show participants can casually state that “we are all Muslims here in Pakistan”, which is patently not the case. This is a country where a non-Muslim cannot, by law, become president or prime minister. The blasphemy laws continue to be abused to settle personal scores, evade debts owed to non-Muslims and to grab their land by forcing them to flee in the face of violence. The state, meanwhile, remains largely unmoved by the plight of minorities — and that isn’t surprising either for it is a party to this persecution.

Tackling the terrorists who kill almost at will isn’t the only job at hand. The culture of intolerance has become ingrained in Pakistan and wide-ranging measures are required to change our collective mindset. Textbooks need to be revised and the perils of both brazen and covert narrow-mindedness must be publicly debated. It would also help if major religious parties came forward to condemn atrocities such as Friday’s attacks on Ahmadis in Lahore. But that is perhaps asking for too much.

Spinning The Conspiracy Wheel
May 31, 2010

American newspapers have superb "spin masters;" Pakistani Urdu press excels in "conspiracy theorists." Here are the front-page “explanations” in Pakistan’s two foremost Urdu newspapers,Nawa-i-WaqtandJang, only one day after that carnage at Lahore. Both are published from several cities, and also have web editions. The first sponsors something called "Nazariya-i-Pakistan Trust" (Concept of Pakistan Trust), where on the 26th of May a delegation of Dalits from India was warmly welcomed, and heard earnest expressions of sympathy for their plight in India. The second,Jang, is currently the co-sponsor with the Times of India of something called “Amn ki Asha” (Hope for Peace). Several exchanges of intellectuals between the countries have recently occurred under their sponsorship. Jang also owns some TV channels.

...............

Some of the above explanations are repeated in various reports on the front-page inJang. There is also a special report by a staff writer. It begins by claiming that certain secret agencies of the country had discovered the ugly conspiracy before the attacks, and informed the relevant officials; the latter, however, paid the report no attention. “A senior officer of a secret agency,” the report continues, “told us that the Afghan intelligence, together with India’s RAW, and the intelligence organizations of U.K., America, and Israel, was involved in the incident, and that the senior most officer of the Afghan intelligence had contacted by satellite phone an extremely influential Qadiani in Bharat, to tell him that something against his community was about to happen. According to this senior official of a secret agency, such attacks on the Qadianis bring into question the security Pakistan provides to its minorities. The above-mentioned four countries, enemies of Islamic jihad, have gained strength by getting this operation done. India now gains an excuse for its planned action against madrassas and Muslim scholars in India, in particular against the scholars of the Deobandi school.”

A separate report on the front page carries quotations from the statement issued by the maulanas of “Almi Majlis-i-Tahaffuz-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwat,” including: “[The attacks] are a huge international conspiracy to use the issue of minority rights in Pakistan in order to advance a deliberate scheme seeking to destroy the ‘Anti-Qadianiat’ ordinance and the laws that protect the Prophet’s honor.”

Jang, however, took an editorial stance on Saturday, and condemned the attacks as well as the lapses in security. It, nevertheless, also asked the question, “Why an attack on Ahmadis now,” hinting at what their staff writer had more explicitly expressed, but leaving it to the readers to draw their own conclusions.

Postscript: On Sunday, Jang published a second editorial on the carnage, more forceful and unequivocal in condemnation. It also published a thoughtful and revealing column by Nazeer Naji, who as a young man took part in anti-Ahmadi demonstrations in the Fifties. Three other columns dealt with the subject. One by Abbas Mahkari spent one sentence on the attacks, devoting the rest to Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani. The other two, by Irfan Siddiqui and Farah Naz Isfahani, set excellent examples of hypocrisy and double talk, one from the perspective of the religious, the other from the perspective of the Peoples Party. Nawa-i-Waqt remained true to its principles. It wrote a long and passionate editorial that condemned Facebook and Western media and praised all the maulanas and leaders who had organized demonstrations against the infamous cartoons recently. No major columnist in the paper took any notice of the events at Lahore, but two minor columnists opined that the attacks at Lahore showed how “Bharat” was bent upon “avenging Mumbai!” Two of the “most favorite” articles on their website separately accuse “Black Water” and “RAW” for the attacks. Fortunately, they are not also the “most e-mailed.”

chetak wrote:........... This is the same aman ki natak jang.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265622

Spinning The Conspiracy Wheel
May 31, 2010

American newspapers have superb "spin masters;" Pakistani Urdu press excels in "conspiracy theorists." Here are the front-page “explanations” in Pakistan’s two foremost Urdu newspapers,Nawa-i-WaqtandJang, only one day after that carnage at Lahore. Both are published from several cities, and also have web editions. The first sponsors something called "Nazariya-i-Pakistan Trust" (Concept of Pakistan Trust), where on the 26th of May a delegation of Dalits from India was warmly welcomed, and heard earnest expressions of sympathy for their plight in India. The second,Jang, is currently the co-sponsor with the Times of India of something called “Amn ki Asha” (Hope for Peace). Several exchanges of intellectuals between the countries have recently occurred under their sponsorship. Jang also owns some TV channels.

...............

Some of the above explanations are repeated in various reports on the front-page in Jang. There is also a special report by a staff writer. It begins by claiming that certain secret agencies of the country had discovered the ugly conspiracy before the attacks, and informed the relevant officials; the latter, however, paid the report no attention. “A senior officer of a secret agency,” the report continues, “told us that the Afghan intelligence, together with India’s RAW, and the intelligence organizations of U.K., America, and Israel, was involved in the incident, and that the senior most officer of the Afghan intelligence had contacted by satellite phone an extremely influential Qadiani in Bharat, to tell him that something against his community was about to happen. According to this senior official of a secret agency, such attacks on the Qadianis bring into question the security Pakistan provides to its minorities. The above-mentioned four countries, enemies of Islamic jihad, have gained strength by getting this operation done. India now gains an excuse for its planned action against madrassas and Muslim scholars in India, in particular against the scholars of the Deobandi school.” {Snipped} ...............

arun wrote:Muslim on Muslim violence in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with adherents of the majority Sunni sect of Islam killing an adherent of the minority Shia sect of Islam in Karachi:

Shia man killed in sectarian clash

arun wrote:The targeting of Doctors belonging to the Shia Muslim Sect by their Co-religionists belonging to the Sunni Muslim sect, simply for the fact of belonging to a different sect of Islam, was very much in vogue in Karachi in the earlier part of this decade. (See: Doctors Under Fire).

Appears that we might be seeing a return to the practice in vogue at the beginning of the decade with a Doctor belonging to the minority Shia Muslim sect being gunned down by motorcycle borne Sunni Muslim killers in Karachi:

Doctor killed in suspected sectarian hit

For a country that proclaims itself as having been created as a safe haven for the Muslims of the Indian Sub-continent, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is downright unsafe for those who belong to smaller Muslim sects.

Friday, June 04, 2010

Shia doctor gunned down near Railway Colony

KARACHI: Another doctor belonging to the Shia sect was shot dead on Thursday by unidentified gunmen near the Railway Colony. Frere police said the deceased Hassan Hyder, 33, son of Kausar was a resident of Bilal Apartments, adding he was shot as he returning home from his clinic. The police said the victim used to work at the National Medical College. Allama Abbas Komaili condemned the targeted killings of Shias and said the government should take notice of the killings of Shia doctors. …………………….

Daily Times

arun wrote:The minority Muslim Ahmadi / Ahmedi / Ahmadiyya sect gets to see what it means to be a Dhimmi in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The attacks on two places of worship in Lahore are not isolated incidents of violence against the Ahmadi community. For some time now, members of the Ahmadi community have been considered fair game by extremist elements that thrive on hate speech. Ahmadis have been victims of abuse under blasphemy laws, targeted killings, and other forms of violence and discrimination since the introduction of anti-Ahmadi laws by the Zia-ul Haq regime in 1984.

Friday’s attacks are shocking not only because of the high number of casualties, but also because they expose the state’s inability to perform its primary duty; protecting the right to life of its people. While that duty extends to protecting the lives of everyone in the country, Ahmadis deserve specific protection measures on account of being the most vulnerable community in Pakistan.

Since the April 1984 anti-Ahmadi legislation, 106 Ahmadis have been murdered, on account of their religious beliefs prior to the bloodshed of May 28, 2010. This figure also includes 18 Ahmadi doctors. The number of people convicted for those killings is in single digits. 47 Ahmadis were killed on account of their beliefs during the 1999-2007 regime of General Pervez Musharraf.

On 19th of May 2010, an Ahmadi was shot dead in Karachi. In April 2010, three others were murdered in Faisalabad. Another Ahmadi was murdered in Narowal on May 31, 2010.

In January 2009, five Ahmadis, including four children, were charged with blasphemy under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in a village of Layyah district in Punjab. Only timely police intervention foiled an attempt by members of a banned organisation to torch the houses of the Ahmadis in the village. A fact-finding mission of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) found that the five Ahmadis were detained without any proof or witnesses. A prayer leader in the village had allowed Ahmadi students from a nearby tuition centre to offer prayers in his mosque. The students were later threatened by a government school teacher and never went to the mosque again. Around 10 days later, some villagers claimed finding blasphemous writings in the mosque’s toilet. In the First Information Report, the complainant stated: “Since these Ahmadis are the only non-Muslims coming to the mosque, therefore they must have committed the offence.” The local police officer also argued: “A Muslim cannot even think of doing something so derogatory. The Ahmadis were the only non-Muslims visiting the mosque. Therefore, it has to be their work.” The accused were released on bail after six months and were subsequently acquitted in April 2010.

In July last year, activists of Sunni Tehreek, blocked the main Sheikhupura highway in Faisalabad district to pressurise police to register a case against 32 Ahmadis, of village 194-RB, on the charge of writing Quranic verses on the outer walls of their houses. They ended the protest after assurances that a case would be registered. Police subsequently registered a case under sections 295-A and 295-C of the PPC.

In June 2009, rioters attacked and desecrated an Ahmadi graveyard in Pir Mahal, Toba Tek Singh district. The authorities subsequently cancelled the allotment order for the land given to Ahmadis 20 years earlier.

As many as six Ahmadis were murdered because of their faith and over 100 booked under blasphemy and anti-Ahmadi laws in 2008. Those booked included Ahmadi children as young as 8, for being on the mailing list of an Ahmadi children’s magazine.

In the most alarming example of hate speech, an anchorperson of a popular Urdu TV channel talked about the 1974 amendment to the Constitution, which declared Ahmadis non-Muslim, in a prime time discussion on September 7, 2008. The show ended with the anchor declaring the Ahmadis Wajibul Qatl (liable to be killed) because they do not believe in the finality of prophethood of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). On the following day, September 8, an Ahmadi doctor, Abdul Mannan Siddiqui, was shot dead in Mirpur Khas, Sindh. On September 9, another Ahmadi, Seth Muhammad Yousuf, was assassinated in Nawabshah district of Sindh. No action was taken against the TV channel or the anchorperson.

In early June, a mob of 300 college students beat up Ahmadi students at the Punjab Medical College in Faisalabad, and ransacked their hostel quarters. The medical college rusticated 23 Ahmadi students on the report of a disciplinary committee. It was alleged that they were preaching and distributing Ahmadi literature. The students suffered harassment and interruption in their studies for several months before being allowed to resume their education.

Social boycott, ostracism and hate campaigns against the Ahmadi community through wall-chalking, posters, stickers and pamphlets have frequently been reported in villages and major cities.

Unfortunately, all evidence points to more attacks targeting Ahmadis in the future. The Ahmadi worship place in Model Town had received repeated threats from extremists throughout 2009. HRCP had asked the Punjab government to ensure security for the Ahmadi community centre in Model Town.

Code: Select all

Year  Murdered on account of religious beliefs  Booked under blasphemy law    Booked under Ahmadi-specific law’s 

2007                     5                                              22                             24



2008                    6                                               30                             76

2009                   11                                               37                             57

2010(to date)          91, including 85 killed in two terrorist attacks on May 28 

Attacks on May 28 demonstrate that even advance warnings may not be effective in ensuring the safety of the targets because terrorists can afford to bide their time. Security measures alone cannot address the threats faced on account of religious beliefs by Ahmadi and other communities. Progress in addressing that threat is unlikely unless the State confronts the growing intolerance and extremism in the country.

A renowned rice trader was gunned down on Tuesday, as he resisted the kidnapping of his son in Quetta on Tuesday. Victim Hamesh Kumar, along with his son Rajesh, was going home after closing his shop in Satellite Town when they were intercepted by unidentified armed men, wearing uniforms of the Balochistan Levies Force. They tried to kidnap Rajesh, which Hamesh resisted on which the assailants shot the rice trader and fled. He was taken to a nearby hospital but he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead by the doctors. Afterwards, a large number of Hindus along with local businessmen and shopkeepers organised a protest to condemn Hamesh’s killing and demanded the government arrest his killers as early as possible.

Over 50 Pakistani Hindus have converted to Islam in the Sialkot district of Punjab within a week (between May 14 and May 19) under pressure from their Muslim employers in a bid to retain their jobs and survive in the Muslim-dominated society.

According to Mangut Ram, his co workers often used to speak against Hindus in Karachi where his family worked. “The owner of the shop where I worked said that after a few months of his employing me the sales dropped drastically because people avoided purchasing and eating edibles prepared by Hindus. Many people opposed the large presence of Hindu employees at his shop and my boss felt pressured to change the situation,” he added.

He said other Muslims employees of the nearby shops discriminated against them and persecuted them.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Targeted killings turn into sectarian violence

1 more killed, death toll rises to 5 in 15 days

By Atif Raza

KARACHI: In the continuing wave of sectarian violence in the city, a Shia man was gunned down on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the police have failed to arrest the criminals involved in targeted killings.

As per details, 35-year-old Shahzad Raza Rizvi, son of Tahir, worked as salesman at a grocery shop near Bahadurabad Chowrangi in the limits of New Town police station.

SHO Tariq Imran confirming it a targeted killing said, the deceased, father of one, sustained two bullets in the head when he was ambushed by two unidentified motorcyclists near the Imtiaz Superstore.

His body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities, where doctors stated the victim was shot from a distance of less than 20 meters. The body was later handed over to his family.

Allama Abbas Komaili condemning the attack said at least five members of the community have been killed during the last 15 days. ………………............


Daily Times

arun wrote:In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the self proclaimed “worlds first ideological Muslim State“, members of the majority Sunni Muslim sect have a go at each other with the Sunni Muslim Barelvi sub-sect facing off the Sunni Muslim Deobandi sub-sect in Karachi.

For an Islamic Republic, Pakistan exhibits to a remarkably high degree the inability of one group of its Muslim citizens to coexist in peace with another group of its Muslim citizens simply on account of minor interpretational nuances of Muslim faith :

Friday, June 11, 2010

3 hurt in Godhra sectarian clash

KARACHI: A clash between two rival groups left three injured on Thursday evening in the Godhra locality of New Karachi.

Sources said the clash took place between the Deoband and Barelvi factions ……………………

Daily Times