Persecution of minorities in pakistan

[ajtr]

Dalit girl forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan: Report​

ISLAMABAD: A 13-year-old Dalit girl was kidnapped and apparently forced to convert to Islam in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, according to a media report on Saturday.

Poonam was kidnapped from her house in Lyari Town in Karachi on Wednesday, her uncle Bhanwroo told the Daily Times newspaper.

When neighbours informed her family of Poonam's presence at a madrassa in Lyari, they went there.

"She was very scared and under the influence of maulvis. She told us they will not let her go, so she will stay with them as a Muslim," said Bhanwroo.

The family contacted police in Chakiwara to lodge an FIR on the kidnapping but they refused to do so, he said.

Lyari's Superintendent of Police Khadim Hussain Rind told the newspaper that lodging an FIR would not make any difference as it will be cancelled during court proceedings.

Read more: Dalit girl forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan: Report - The Times of India Dalit girl forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan: Report - The Times of India

 

[ajtr]

3 Bengalis gunned down in September​

KARACHI: The bullet-riddled body of an unidentified man was found near the 100-Quarter Ground in Korangi, Zaman Town police said on Thursday.

SHO Atif Shah said the police recovered the body of a man who appeared to be a Bengali on information from the area residents. The body bore torture marks and two bullet wounds.

The culprits had kidnapped the victim and killed him before throwing away his body as no empty shells or fresh blood was seen near the body, he added.

The police moved his body to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for post-mortem and later shifted it to the Edhi Morgue for identification. The officer said that it was the third time in September that a body of a Bengali man was found.

The previous two men were affiliated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)'s Bengali Action Committee (BAC) but the identity of the third victim was yet to be ascertained, he added. The police have registered a case against unidentified men on behalf of the State. staff report

 

[ajtr]

Troubled History of Domestic Violence Legislation in Pakistan​

For more than a year, Pakistan's Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill has languished in legislative limbo, awaiting political resuscitation. The National Assembly passed the bill on August 4, 2009, but the Senate failed to do so within the three months mandated by the Constitution, opting to let the bill lapse.

Mere consideration of a domestic violence bill constitutes a major development in Pakistan, where gender-based violence is rampant. Approximately 80 percent of married women in rural areas fear domestic abuse while 50 percent of women in urban areas report having been subjected to spousal abuse. The Aurat Foundation reports that gender-based violence increased by 13 percent from 2008 to 2009.

Men routinely attempt to disfigure or kill women who refuse to be forced into a sexual relationship or marriage, particularly in rural areas. In 2008, five women who refused forced marriages were shot, then buried alive in Baluchistan -- and the province's representative defended the perpetrators' "right" to do so. There has been an increase in abduction, forced marriage, and forcible conversion by extremists in rural areas.

Current law defines abuse narrowly and makes it difficult for victims of domestic violence to so much as prove a case against abusers and stops well short of providing legal guidelines and institutional resources to ensure investigation, prosecution, conviction, and punishment of offenders. In May of last year, a father and son who raped a widow in Dadu province escaped prosecution despite their identities being known. In the same month in Naseerabad, an elderly woman was beaten to death by a raiding party of policemen charged with preventing such assaults.

The bill would establish protection committees to supervise the provision of legal protections and guarantee medical care for victims of domestic violence. Further, it would increase the consequences for perpetrators by making the accused liable for the financial losses and damages inflicted on victims and their dependents as well as imposing harsher sentences on convicted offenders--with special sentencing guidelines regarding imprisonment and fines for repeat offenders. The bill also requires regular review of domestic violence legislation by the National Commission on the Status of Women. The dual Augean tasks these conditions must accomplish will be to discourage perpetrators from domestic abuse and encourage victims to report assaults by shifting social and cultural norms.

Some of the same hurdles that led to the bill's lapse in the Senate remain. While some cite the opposition of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) to the original bill as a causal factor in its lapse, others accuse critics of playing politics with religion by overstating religious opposition. The CII did classify the bill as "discriminatory," pointing to the potential for its use by police as a justification for violating the "sanctity of the home," and further objected that the bill would increase divorce rates. Yet the passage of the bill in the National Assembly and support from within Islamist political parties suggest that the obstacles to its passage in the Senate cannot be ascribed to religious opposition solely.

Attempts at implementation will have to address several potential flaws of the legislation as well as contending with cultural resistance, the social legacies of a broken justice system, and warped legal tradition. In particular, the protection committees created by the bill may be inadequate, as the members of the police force who comprise them may be among those contributing to the prevalence of gender-based violence and ensuring impunity for offenders. The refusal to report domestic violence is the most basic hurdle: women often do not report domestic violence, in particular sexual violence, because of strong social norms and fear of reprisal. Traditionally, there have been few protections for victims. Filing a report and pressing charges often expose victims to abuse, mistreatment, and deprivation of dignity at the hands of police and within the justice system. In neighboring India, despite the fact that the law now bans references to a victim's sexual history or character in sexual assault cases, police and physicians still use the "per vagina," or the "finger test," in rape investigations to determine whether or not an unmarried victim may have "been habituated to sex" prior to assault. If the investigators suspect that a victim has been sexually active, they may drop the case altogether, evidencing a wide disconnect between legislative progress and the realization of rights for sexual assault victims.

The most vocal critics of gender-based violence and the strongest proponents of the bill come from within Pakistan. That the political debate has been primarily internally driven is positive and may signal the presence of the political will necessary to implement the bill and effect wide-spread change. Last year's Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, broadening definitions of sexual harassment and increasing penalties for violators, also augurs well for future steps toward codifying gender parity.

External actors and international organizations should contribute to the efforts of supporters of domestic violence legislation in Pakistan by drawing attention to the increase in gender-based violence and escalating severity of crimes as well as explicitly raising the profile of the legislation, which has largely disappeared from the radar of international media. Of course, would-be allies must ground analyses and advocacy in the context in which this legislation must operate. While Scandinavian countries, for example, have been exceptionally successful in surmounting gender discrimination and promoting gender parity, their legislative lessons and models are of little use in Pakistan, where those who hope to enact legislation to prevent forms of gender-based and domestic violence contend with fundamental debates, such as the question of whether legislation that affects how men treat their wives should be considered a violation of a widely acknowledged concept of rights. Protections for women granted as basic and justified elsewhere in the world cannot be presumed in Pakistan. The roots of gender-based violence and the mechanisms by which legislation may attempt to influence its incidence differ, and actors and allies must recognize these differences without attempting to oversimplify or fall prey to political attempts to deflect debate.

 

[ajtr]

Dasti diverted floodwaters to Christian village, killed 15: report​

LAHORE: The Punjab government has called an inquiry report regarding a news item published in Italian newspaper Awenire in which the paper alleged that a Pakistani politician had ordered the diversion of floodwaters into a Christian village, killing at least 15 people, in an attempt to save his personal property. The Punjab government has called this report after receiving a circular issued by the Interior Ministry, in which it was stated that a local politician of Muzaffargarh, Member National Assembly (MNA) Jamshed Dasti, had ordered the diversion of floodwaters into a Christian village, killing at least 15 people, in an attempt to save his personal property. Due to this act, the Christian locality (Khokharabad) was completely flooded, causing damage to crops and leaving 337 homeless. A local politician ordered the building of a dam to divert the floodwater through the village to save some of his own property. The foreign media reported that the Khokharabad inhabitants were not notified and therefore were unable to escape before their village was swept away. One of the village leaders, Taj Masih, said, "Our village was flooded on purpose. Dasti, just to save his own land, preferred to leave 377 people without homes or harvest, our only source of livelihood. Now we have nothing." Local authorities are denying responsibility for the decision to erect the dam. asad kharal

 

[ajtr]

Sehwan incident​

Dawn Editorial
Thursday, 14 Oct, 2010

It is a sad reflection on Pakistani society when sectarian differences and schisms begin to affect Sufi shrines, long considered bastions of tolerance and communal harmony.
The golden-domed mausoleum of Syed Usman Marwandi — better known as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar — in Sehwan had to be sealed on Tuesday to prevent a clash between two groups of devotees belonging to different sects. Locals say this is the first time in its history that the shrine had to be closed. The saint is held in high esteem not only by Shias and Sunnis, but also by members of the Hindu community. Devotees flock to Sehwan from across Pakistan as well as different parts of the world, especially during the saint's annual urs.

Tension started mounting when the brother of Sindh's senior minister announced that a majlis would be held in the shrine's Dhamal court. This provoked members of the Sunni community, who also revere the qalandar. They said they would organise a strike if the religious event went ahead. The authorities decided to seal the shrine to avert a confrontation and police contingents had to be brought in. The shrine has reopened amidst tight security though the situation remains tense.

Sectarian tensions in Sehwan have been growing over the past decade and a half. Observers say there was an agreement between the Shia and Sunni communities that no majlis or maatam would be held within the mausoleum's courtyard; all such religious activities are supposed to take place near an imambargah attached to the shrine. A clash occurred last year when a section of the Shia community organised a similar gathering in the courtyard. It is hoped that the opposing factions sit down and sort out their differences so that communal harmony can be restored and disagreements of this nature are not exploited to provoke wider sectarian unrest.

 

[ajtr]

Muslims Severely Beat, Sodomize Christian Barber​

Brother of Muslim who insisted on having beard cut, seven others, break hair-cutter's bones.
SARGODHA, Pakistan, April 28 (CDN) — A Christian barber in this Punjab Province city is still recovering from broken bones and other injuries sustained earlier this month after eight Muslims allegedly beat and sodomized him for cutting the beard of a Muslim.

Marwat Masih, 29, initially refused the request of 19-year-old Qandeel Cheema to cut his beard in Sargodha's Gulshan-e-Bashir town on April 13, knowing that area Sunni Muslims believe the Quran prohibits it. But Cheema, a high school student, told Masih that he had lived and studied in Lahore and therefore wanted a more modern look, the bed-ridden and feeble Masih told Compass.

"I refused to shave his beard, but he showed me his packed bags and said that he would leave the town straight after the shave, and so no one would ever know that I had shaved his beard," Masih said.


Eyewitnesses told Compass that as Masih was cutting Cheema's beard, the client's older brother – local radical Muslim land owner Shakeel Cheema – was returning by tractor from his fields and, noting the family Jeep in front of the Marwat Hair Stylist shop, stopped in.

"When Shakeel Cheema saw me shaving his younger brother's beard, he became angry and started vandalizing mirrors, the sound system and chairs, and he desecrated a wooden cross perched on the top of the front mirrors," Masih said. "He also started beating my head with his shoes."


Eyewitnesses told Compass that Shakeel Cheema shouted orders to his companions to tie Masih up and throw him into the wagon attached to his tractor, and that he ordered his younger brother to leave for Lahore at once.

Masih said that he was blindfolded with a black cloth and taken to an unknown place where he was locked in a room. An hour later, Shakeel Cheema and seven others arrived and began striking him with clubs, breaking his ribs, a wrist and leg bones.

"Shakeel Cheema said, 'Now we are going to teach you a real lesson for shaving the beard of a Muslim man," Masih said, and after a long, pained pause he related how Cheema and the seven others sodomized him. "I started bleeding and fell unconscious."


His father, Laal Masih, older brother Hassrat Masih and other relatives had begun searching for him, and after midnight that night they found him lying half-naked and unconscious off the main street of Gulshan-e-Bashir town, his father told Compass. They immediately took him to Rural Health Centre, where doctors kept him under observation for two days and treated him for internal bleeding and the broken ribs, leg bones and wrist.


"We submitted an application to the Saddr police twice, but they took no action against Shakeel Cheema and his accomplices," Laal Masih said. The family is appealing to Christian ministers and parliamentarians for assistance.


Still receiving threats of harm if they do not leave the area, family members also said they cannot afford the fees of a standard physician and have resorted to help from lesser trained doctors.

Police have refused to file a First Information Report against Cheema and his accomplices, who all remained at large at press time.

A shopkeeper next to Masih's barbershop told Compass that the barber deserved the abuse.
"He deserves such punishment, as he did something that is forbidden according to the teaching of the Quran and the sunna [arabic word for the sayings or habits of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam]," said Muhammad Maqsood, who has a long, white beard. "Marwat Masih paid for his crime."


Masih's 36-year-old brother Hassrat Masih emphasized that Gulshan-e-Bashir town is inhabited mainly by radical Muslims.

"Therefore, almost all of them are against shaving, especially the beard," Hassrat Masih said. "Having a beard is seen as holy practice because it is a standard prescribed for all Muslims in the sunna, or teachings or actions of the prophet of Islam."

 

[ajtr]

Being a Hindu in Pakistan​

It's not easy these days being a Hindu in Pakistan. The number of cases of members of the Hindu community being kidnapped for ransom is on the rise, both in Sindh and in Balochistan. While recently attending a meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee for Law and Justice, I realised that a stringent law was already in place under which a person convicted of this offence could be sentenced to life in prison or even death. As usual, the discussion revolved around the fact that while we had good laws, they were not being implemented.
Personally, I am against capital punishment — and the logic is quite straightforward: since we don't give life, we have no right to take it away. And hence life imprisonment is acceptable but not capital punishment. However, the rise in cases of kidnapping, often of children, has altered this view. Those who kidnap people for ransom need to be dealt with a heavy hand, more so because in Pakistan where we hardly ever see anyone punished for this crime. In August, before the floods had hit Sindh, I visited a Hindu Sindhi family in Kashmore whose six-year-old had been kidnapped. The state of the mother was enough to convince me to press for severe punishment as a deterrent to stop this kind of crime.
I was told that Hindus were being targeted because, by and large, they lacked political clout and made for easier targets. Furthermore, those involved in kidnapping for ransom often had connections to powerful people, and this explained why, in most instances, the kidnappers were never caught.
The tragedy is that as a result of these kidnappings, many Hindu families have migrated to India. After all, it is better to live in another country than in perpetual fear. This is the biggest failure of the so-called Islamic Republic of Pakistan — that its minorities don't feel safe on their own soil.
Clearly, the government's package, called 'Aghaz-e-Huqooq Balochistan' has not achieved much in that province. For instance, in 2009 a 13-year-old was kidnapped and released after a ransom of Rs1.8 million was paid. Another Hindu was kidnapped from the busy Sariab road and released after a ransom of Rs4.2 million was paid. A Hindu man was kidnapped and released after his family paid Rs1.5 million. A Hindu shopkeeper was asked to pay Rs6million at which point he migrated to India — this happened in August of this year. And this is just a partial list.
The Hindu community is peaceful — so what is its biggest sin? It is a minority in a land where there is no rule of law. All that is needed is the political will to go after those involved in these kidnappings — the incidents will stop and our Hindu compatriots will stop fleeing to India.

The writer is a PML-Q MNA [email protected]

 

[Solomon2]

"The Hindu community is peaceful — so what is its biggest sin? It is a minority in a land where there is no rule of law. All that is needed is the political will to go after those involved in these kidnappings -"

What many Muslim Pakistanis don't seem to grasp is that by protecting minorities in their midst they are also helping themselves. Clearly, a criminal who realizes he will be captured and prosecuted for a crime against a minority will realize that he will be pursued at least as firmly if he commits crime against the majority.

 

[ajtr]

UN bodies urge Pakistan to prevent 'victimisation'​

GENEVA: Three UN human rights bodies on Wednesday called on Pakistan to ensure that women, minorities and the disabled were spared "further victimisation" during the recovery from devastating floods.

"The floods have disproportionately affected them," they said in a joint statement.

"Members of minority communities, Afghan refugees, women, children and persons with disabilities, particularly those living in rural areas, were already among the most vulnerable in Pakistani society."

The statement called on Pakistanis authorities "to strengthen the human rights-based approach of their efforts, in order to prevent further victimization of the most vulnerable population."

In the flood hit north-western Khyber Pakhtunkwa province, scene of fighting between militants and government forces, women and especially girls have been denied access to basic health and education, according to the UN.

The Committee on children's rights, the Committee on the elimination of discrimination against Women, and the Committee on the rights of the disabled underlined that 85 percent of those displaced by the floods are women and children, including half a million pregnant women.

They suffer with the destruction of health centres and need protection from sexual and physical abuse, while women and girls need help to overcome "any constraints" they face in reaching aid and basic services "including cultural barriers," the UN rights bodies said.

Meanwhile, the disabled "are often a part of society that is kept invisible, even under normal circumstances and more so in times of emergency,"they added, and need urgent relocation from flood hit areas.

At least seven million people are still without shelter in Pakistan nearly three months after catastrophic monsoon floods devastated huge swathes of the country, according to the United Nations. – AFP

 

[Tshering22]

It is still a mystery to me as to how a country so fragile as Pakistan continue to exist. With fundamentalism out of control, identity crisis of who they are, rigid 7th century views, lack of any funds, currency value spiraling downwards, terrorism in every corner of the country whether Karachi in south or Miranshah in North.. I must say that I admire Pakistani Army's will to keep the nation as one. There's NO OTHER force that's keeping that country as a country other than military's force.

 

[ajtr]

Four people shot dead in Quetta: police​

Thursday, 28 Oct, 2010

QUETTA: A gunman Thursday shot dead four Shia Muslims in Quetta, police said.

"The four Shias had just closed their shop and left for home when an unknown gunman opened fire on their car and ran away," killing two people on the spot, senior local police official Hamid Shakeel told AFP.

He said the other two people died of their injuries on the way to hospital.

No one had claimed responsibility for the attack, Shakeel added. A second police official, Shaukat Ali, confirmed the incident.

 

[ajtr]

Distorted priorities?​

BY SANA SALEEM ON 10 29TH, 2010 | COMMENTS (41)

How many of us remember the three-year-old girl who was kidnapped, raped and thrown in a sewer, or the 13-year-old boy from Korangi who was gang-raped on Eid-ul-Fitr last year, or the five-year-old girl who was raped, strangled and later recovered from a garbage dump at a ground in Gizri?

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's (HRCP) Annual Report 2009:

"968 children, 285 boys and 683 girls were sexually abused. Around 1,404 women murdered, including 647 in the name of 'honour'. Around 928 women were raped and some 563 committed suicide."

Another survey, conducted by Sahil, an NGO which raises awareness regarding child sexual abuse and exploitation, paints a haunting image:

"Out of a total of 1,216 cases reported in six months, 331 boys, whereas 885 girls had been sexually abused, and the percentage of the female cases was 72 per cent as compared to 28 per cent of male cases."

Rape is grossly under-reported in Pakistan. The culture of silence and shame has been one of the biggest hurdles victims face. It is then a pity that the few, who choose to overlook cultural barriers and gather the courage to come forth, are forced to go through the ordeal for years before justice is served. In most instances, alleged rapists are acquitted due to loopholes in our judicial system, while sometimes the victims are pressurised to withdraw their case. The role of police in such cases has been extremely notorious. For instance, take the case of a 10-year-old boy from Lahore; despite medico-legal reports proving rape had occurred, the police was reluctant to file an FIR against the accused pedophile.

In Khipro, a student of class X was given sedatives and gang-raped but her ordeal wasn't over. The heinous crime was filmed via a mobile phone camera and the video posted on various websites. In the aftermath of the incident, parents of more than 100,000 students have stopped their daughters from attending schools and colleges.

Even more shocking are reports of an alleged gang of blackmailers comprising boys and girls, from 'respectable' families, who have sexually assaulted girls, recorded videos of the victims and used it to blackmail the victim's parent or posted it on the Internet.

What kind of people would commit such an atrocious crime, film it and upload the videos on the Internet is beyond me. Unfortunately, this is not new phenomenon, such incidences have been reported before. In March 2009, a teenage boy was gang-raped in police custody and the footage distributed over the Internet. Child porn continues to be accessed throughout Pakistan and now, rape videos have also joined the league yet we see no outrage by these 'upholders of morals and justice.' The lack of coverage and public outrage at such incidents is extremely disturbing and worrisome. But then our priorities have been distorted for quite sometime. It is a pity that we live in a country where hundreds will march on the streets, calling for an all out ban on social media platforms because of an isolated incident, while horrifying stories of abuse do not merit our anger. If alarming figures from the HRCP reports and the increasing incidences of rape and abuse of women and children does not bring us back to our senses, I don't know what will.

 

[ajtr]

No place for Ahmedi body in a Muslim graveyard​

BHALWAL: Interred body of an Ahmedi was exhumed here on Sunday from a Muslim graveyard after some local clerics led protest against the burial and the Sargodha tehsil police forced the dead man's heirs to remove it from the graveyard.
Shehzad Waraich, who died on October 30, was a resident of Chak 24 North.
Shehzad's brother told The Express Tribune that several members of the family including his grandparents and parents were buried in the same graveyard. He said there never had been any objection or disapproval.
He said that their families were the only two Ahmedi families in Bhalwal, a town with a population of only a few thousands. Chaks 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 have three government graveyards, shared by the residents of the area, he said.
He said that the people of his village, Chak 24 North, had not objected to his brother's burial in the Chak 19 graveyard, so he had buried the body there. "Some of our elders are also buried there, we decided to bury him in the same graveyard," he added. Waraich's body was buried in the Chak 19 graveyard on the morning of October 30.
He said that on October 31, Sadar Division SHO Azhar Yaqoob and DSP Ghulam Murtaza came to their village along with other police officials and asked his family to remove the body of his brother from the Muslims graveyard of Chak 19.
"I told him that our elders were all buried in the graveyard. Neither the people of my village, nor of Chak 19 had raised any objection," he said.
He said that the police told him that some local clerics in Sargodha had objected to the burial and in the interest of law and order, asked him to remove the body of his younger brother.
He said that the family, some relatives and the police then exhumed the body from the graveyard on Sunday.
"I don't think that the police were forced to do this. The way I see it, the police forced us."
Saleemul Din, an Ahmedi community spokesman condemned the police action. He said, "To this day, 30 Ahmedis' bodies have been exhumed for similar reasons. The police do have no right to humiliate the dead from our community like this. Yet, they have been doing it since 1984."
Sadar Division DSP Ghulam Murtaza said that some clerics had approached him and asked him to remove the body. He said that they had threatened him with protest movement against the police if the body of the Ahmedi man was not exhumed. In view of the sensitivity of the situation, he said, he did his best to resolve the matter peacefully by ordering the removal the body from the graveyard.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 2nd, 2010.

 

[ajtr]

10-year-old maid beaten up to 'free her of djinns'​

MULTAN:
A 10-year-old girl, who worked as a maid at a lawyer's house, sought refuge at a neighbour's house on Tuesday night after being beaten for days by a witch doctor to free her from djinns' possession.
According to the child, Sara, her employee believed that she was possessed.
The lawyer has gone into hiding, along with his family, according to the police after Sara's escape.
A medical examination conducted at the Nister Hospital proved that Sara, the maid, had been subjected to severe torture for many days.
Dr Tasleem Kausar, who examined the child, told The Express Tribune that Sara had torture marks on her back and around her eyes.
Sara, a Faisalabad resident, said that she had been working as a maid at Advocate Mujahid's house in Mohalla Qadeerabad of Multan for three years. She said Mujahid used to take her and his wife to a witch doctor. She said that the witch doctor used to torture her with hot iron and rods.
"My employer believed that his wife was possessed. Later, he started insisting that I had also been possessed," Sara said. Referring to her visits to the witch doctor she continued, "I was asked to close my eyes and tell them what I saw." She said that if she did not respond to the witch doctor's questions, Mujahid would beat her up with iron rods.
She said that she was not allowed to leave the house but on Tuesday night she found a chance and escaped. She sought refuge at a neighbour's house.
Usman Chisti, the neighbour who gave Sara shelter, said that he and his wife were about to go to bed when they heard a knock at the door. "I opened the door and recognised her," Chisti's wife said, "she burst into tears and asked me to protect her from her employer." She said that she brought the child in and called the Chehlek police station.
The police have registered a case against Mujahid under Sections 354 (to keep someone in illegal custody), 337-A1, A2, L2 and V5 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Rana Zaheer Babar, the station house officer (SHO), said that he intended to add the Section 324 (attempted murder) to the FIR.
He said that the police were conducting raids for the arrest of the accused, adding, that he hoped Mujahid would be traced in another couple of days. The child is under treatment at the Nishter Hospital. Dr Waseem, a medical officer, said that a team of doctors was monitoring Sara's condition. He said that an eye specialist would soon be called to examine the swelling around her eyes.
The name of the child has been changed
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2010.

 

[maomao]

^^^^^ Fu@@@K It man......and these land of the pure teach their kids in school that India and in particular Hinduism is all about superstition! Shame on these Hypocrites!!

 

[ajtr]

Punjab: Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy​

For the first time, a woman is sentenced to death in Pakistan for this kind of "offence". The blasphemy law was introduced in 1986 by then Pakistani dictator Zia-ul Haq and since then it has become a tool for discrimination and violence. Part of the Pakistan Penal Code, the law imposes life in prison for defiling the Qur'an and death for insulting Muhammad.


Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Pakistan has "crossed a line" in sentencing a Christian woman to death for blasphemy. Asia Bibi, a 37-year-old farm worker mother of two, was convicted of committing blasphemy before her fellow workers during a heated discussion about religion in the village of Ittanwali in June last year.

Some of the women workers had reportedly been pressuring Bibi to renounce her Christian faith and accept Islam. During one discussion, Bibi responded by speaking of how Jesus had died on the cross for the sins of humanity and asking the Muslim women what Muhammad had done for them.

The Muslim women took offence and began beating Bibi. Afterwards she was locked in a room. According to Release International, a mob reportedly formed and "violently abused" her and her children.

The charity, which supports persecuted Christians, said that blasphemy charges were brought against Bibi because of pressure from local Muslim leaders.

Release International's chief executive, Andy Dipper, expressed his shock at Sunday's ruling.

"Pakistan has crossed a line in passing the death sentence on a woman for blasphemy," he said.

In addition to the death sentence, Bibi was also fined the equivalent for an unskilled worker of two and a half years' wages.

Another Christian woman, Martha Bibi (no relation to Asia), is also on trial in Lahore for blasphemy.

According to the National Commission on Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Catholic Church, between 1986 and August 2009, at least 974 people have been charged for defiling the Qur'an or insulting the Prophet Muhammad. They include 479 Muslims, 340 Ahmadis, 119 Christians, 14 Hindus and 10 from other religions.

The blasphemy law has often been used as a pretext for personal attacks or vendettas as well as extra-judicial murders. Overall, 33 people have died this way at the hands of individuals or crazed mobs.

 

[maomao]

Ironically, Missionaries have full rights to abuse and demonise Hindu Gods in public here in India, above all they run printing presses to publish such sacrilegious material to insult Hindus under the nose of secular Congress ruled states (money, bribes, loyalties with baptists play a major role in India). Where they are in majority, terrorism and gun is the key (baptist Church of Nagaland)...how are Pakistani Mullahs different from Evangelical Missionaries?

India and Pakistan are two poles of the same extreme!

 

[mayfair]

I believe it's more appropriate to consider these "Persecution of non-conformist (as defined by Ulema, Army and America) in Pakistan". I'm certain Allah would be horrified by the mess that the land of the pure has become and the crimes perpetrated in his/her name.

 

[ajtr]

Pakistan: Christian women are considered the booty of war | Spero News​

There is a growing discrimination and persecution against Christians. It 's time the government took the issue of respect for human rights seriously. The UN and EU are placing pressure." So said Nasir Saeed, a Pakistani Christian and coordinator of the Center for Legal Aid, Assistance, and Settlement (CLAAS), in an interview. CLAAS is a service that provides free legal advice and practical support to persecuted Christians in Pakistan. The Center has its headquarters in London and another base in Pakistan, where many lawyers work to defend Christians accused of blasphemy or in need of legal assistance.

What is the current situation of Christians in Pakistan?

The suffering continues. Recently, there has been a troubling escalation of discrimination and persecution against Christians in the country, especially against Christian women and girls. Abductions, rapes, forced marriages, forced conversions to Islam, accusations of blasphemy are all part of our daily agenda. This prolonged suffering is spreading a sense of injustice and neglect, especially among the youth and the poor. We to raise our voices to offer them a better position in seeking justice.

Could you give some examples and provide details?

The cases are many. We know that three members of one Christian family were forced to leave their home because of false accusations of blasphemy, without any evidence, and in many towns and villages, Christians are living on high alert for fear of mob violence. Many incidents of violence are not even brought to light, due to pressures from influential Muslims or because the injured parties - often poor people living in remote areas - do not have money to take legal action or do not know how to react to abuse. So, it is difficult to estimate the exact number of cases of persecution and violence. But it is much higher than you think, because most cases do not end up in the mass media are not recorded in official reports or complaints.

How do you view the case of Asia Bibi?

Asia Bibi was the first woman to be sentenced to death, but other people have suffered the same fate before her. And many others are suffering in prison. We are alarmed by how the blasphemy law is affecting Christians and especially women. We are doing everything possible to raise awareness in the United Nations and European Union, so that they can place serious pressure on the government. It's time that the government of Pakistan took the issue of human rights and minority rights seriously.

Why do women suffer more?

Women, like Asia Bibi, are paying a heavy price for being a Christian in Islamic society: the proliferation of attacks and accusations has reached an unprecedented level. Christian women are looked down upon and considered inferior. They are treated by Muslim men as objects, as 'mal-e-ganimat', a war prize.

How do you assess the action of the government and institutions?

While religious intolerance is at a very high level, the government of Pakistan, politicians, and Muslim religious leaders do not take it seriously. Police rarely make serious investigations until an NGO, a church, or some influential person comes in to resolve a case. This apathetic attitude is very serious.

We want our brothers and sisters in Pakistan to be treated equally, to enjoy the same rights of all citizens, as Ali Jinnah, the Father of the Homeland and drafter of the Constitution, wrote and said. We try to help them with legal assistance, and sometimes it is not easy because of their reticence. The messages of hope, encouragement, sympathy, and prayers from faithful around the world are very important.

 

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Pope pleads for Christian mother sentenced to hang in Pakistan

Vatican City
- Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday appealed for the life of a Christian woman facing execution in Pakistan for allegedly insulting the prophet Mohammed to be spared.

'I express my closeness to Asia Bibi and her family,' the pontiff said, speaking at his weekly general audience. 'And I ask that she be set free as soon as possible.'

The spiritual leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics also called on the international community to consider the 'difficult situation faced by Christians in Pakistan, where they are often victims of violence and discrimination.'

Bibi's case has triggered outrage since the 45-year-old mother of five was last week sentenced to death by a court in Nankana Sahab, a district in the central Pakistani province of Punjab.

Bibi was arrested in June 2009 after a brief brawl with a group of Muslim women who said she should not have touched a water bowl. The women later alleged that Bibi had uttered derogatory remarks about the prophet.

Bibi pleaded not guilty, but the court sentenced her to hang.

It was the first death sentence handed to a woman under the country's controversial blasphemy laws.

Pakistan's around 3 million Christians - who account for roughly 1.6 per cent of the country's population - have been negatively affected by growing Islamist extremism, which has its roots in the Islamization policies of military dictator Zia ul Haq in the 1980s.

Ul Haq introduced blasphemy laws in his effort to impose sharia law, which rights activists say have been used to persecute minority groups.

Pope pleads for Christian mother sentenced to hang in Pakistan - Monsters and Critics