Rattan Saldi*

The State Department’s latest report on International Religious Freedoms presents a graphic account of religious persecution while highlighting forced conversions and targeted killings in Pakistan. It also speaks of atrocities against minorities and targeted desecration of their religious places. It points out large scale human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, and lack of government accountability in the land of the pure as the Pakistanis love to describe their country. Abuse of power and misconduct by officials often go unpunished, fostering a culture of impunity among perpetrators, the US report observes.

Dissecting the US report, the sedate Karachi daily, Dawn, which was founded by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, conceded that the state of religious freedom in Pakistan is far from ideal. “This is a grim fact. The public lynchings over accusations of blasphemy, misuse of the blasphemy law, and the marginalization of minority communities are stark realities in today’s Pakistan”.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also echoed the same concerns. Forced conversions in Sindh province have remained worryingly consistent and reports of religious minorities’ sites of worship being desecrated have continued, but with no response from the state, HRCP said.

Persecution of minorities is nothing new in Pakistan, but the worrisome factor is the manifold increase in attacks on members of the minority communities, kidnappings, incidents of rape and conversions to Islam of their young girls, desecration of their places of worship. The authorities do not spare any international fora to accuse India of violation of human rights, but they keep their eyes shut to the ground realities at home.

Hindu population in Pakistan is largely concentrated in the Sindh province, while the Sikhs are mostly to be found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. They live in constant fear of desecration of their   temples and Gurdwaras by Islamists and radical Sunni vigilantes. Religious intolerance and extremism are on the rise in Pakistan with no concrete steps being taken to check these tendencies beyond hollow assurances of stern action.

Recently extremist elements and fanatics have threatened to disrupt religious activities of Hindu minority and blow up their temples in Sindh province. Attacks on Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadis, Hazaras and even Shia Muslims have increased manifold.

A recent Karachi report said that as a precautionary step additional forces were deployed to check violence or criminal activity following threats   to Hindu temples. The report quoting police chief of Sindh province said that all Hindu temples in the area were put on high alert in the wake of threat perception. But what happened despite additional deployment was shocking.  

A Hindu temple and minority community homes adjoining it were attacked by fanatics with rockets on July 16. This was the second such incident of vandalism against religious places of minorities in Sindh province   in a span of just two days.  

Another glaring incident of forcible stopping of a daily ritual came to light in the last week of June. A mob incited by radical elements attacked a gurudwara in Sukkur and forcibly stopped the recitation of Guru Granth Sahib, and used disrespectful language against the Holy Book; the loudspeaker was abruptly switched off leading to chaos and fear among the devotees. It is a historical gurudwara and kirtan and other rituals have been continuing there for over a century. In another incident, a Sikh shopkeeper was shot dead by motorcycle borne assailants in Peshawar when he was on his way home in an auto-rickshaw after shutting down his shop.

Four such incidents had taken place from April to June this year against the Sikh community apart from attacks on Hindu temples. Highly perturbed, Indian Foreign Office summoned a senior diplomat of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and told him that Pakistan should sincerely probe incidents of persecution of minorities, and punish the guilty.

Yet, the surge in kidnappings and forcible marriages continue unabated across Pakistan. For instance, on July 21, three daughters of a Hindu businessman in Sindh province were kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and later married to the same persons who had kidnapped them, according to the Head of Minority Rights Group, Pakistan Darewar Itehad, Shiva Kachni.  He lamented that the abduction and forcible conversion to Islam of Hindu, Christian and other minority community girls, in many cases minors is continuing unchecked. “Our protests and pleas have fallen on deaf ears”.

Pakistan Human Rights Commission (HRCP) has noted that forced conversions to Islam in Sindh province remains a worrisome factor.  Religious minorities sites of worship are being desecrated but the government is silent.  According to 2017 census carried out by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Hindus constitute 1.6 percent of country’s population, while Christians account for just 1.59 percent. Ahmadiyas number 0.77 percent and other minorities 0.22 percent. The census puts the Muslim population at 96.2 percent. About 20 percent are Shias and the rest are Sunni Muslims. HRCP findings show that apart from the minority Hindus, Christians and Sikhs, Ahmadiyas are also at the receiving end of Sunni fanatics.  Shia Muslims are also vulnerable to violence and victimization at the hands of hardline Sunni groups. This is the stark reality of Pakistan Today, which observed Minorities Day nationwide on Aug 11 in commemoration of Quaid Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s famous call of 1947 to make Pakistan a secular state. Addressing the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, he pledged that every citizen of Pakistan would be able to freely practice his religion.

Forget religious freedom, the Pakistani minorities are denied even political empowerment. They stand barred from becoming President or Prime Minster under the statute.  The Constitution of Pakistan allows only Muslims to attain these positions. This means, as Dawn remarked editorially this Sunday, the fundamental law of the land reduces religious minorities to “second-class citizens in one fell swoop”, and makes their faith very much “the business of the state”.   

Islamabad must come to grips this ground reality with much ado   with proactive measures to give a new deal to its minorities and ensure that they live without fear and with no discrimination whatsoever. It is time Pakistan gives up tokenism, empty promises, and hollow gestures. (SAT)

—* The writer is a Delhi -based veteran broadcast journalist