Pakistan: Christians Increasingly Wary After Abduction Of Slain Governor’s Son

ICC Note

Suspected Muslim radicals abducted Shahbaz Tasser, son of a slain governor in Pakistan. Shahbaz’s father was slain for defending the rights of Christians in Pakistan. The Christians in Pakistan are extremely concerned about the abduction.

By Aftab Alexander Mughal

09/03/2011 Pakistan (Spero News)-It was another shocking moment for many Pakistani people, especially Christian minority of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, when they heard the news on August 26, 2011 of slain Governor Salmaan Taseer’s young son Shahbaz Taseer’s kidnapped in Lahore, Punjab’s capital, by anonymous gunmen. Still, Shahbaz Taseer is missing.

Although, police is not certain about the motives behind the kidnapping, many believe that it is the sequence to intimidate and to be silent, the liberal voices that are against religious intolerance and the conservative practice and laws in Pakistan. Countless human rights activists are openly blame terrorist groups for the daylight kidnapping of Shahbaz Taseer. As the year started, terrorists killed two prominent Pakistani politicians (one Muslim and other Christian) for their liberal views.

The whole of Pakistan was stunned when two well-known Pakistani officials were murdered in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, because of their opposition to Pakistan’s controversial anti-blasphemy laws (known as blasphemy laws). From the time of induction, these laws have been widely misused against innocent people, especially against many Muslims and especially against religious minorities, including Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Ahmadis (Islamic sect regarded as the non-Muslim by the state).

Shahbaz Clement Bhatti, 42, Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities Affairs, was killed by members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Islamabad on 2nd March, 2011. Mr. Bhatti, a Christian, had received numerous death threats from religious extremists before. Earlier, Salmaan Taseer, 64, Governor of Punjab province, Pakistan’s most populous province, was shot dead on 4th January 2011 by one of his police bodyguards, Mumtaz Hussain, 26, in Islamabad. About 500 Muslim clerics of Jamaat Ahle Sunnat Pakistan (JASP) had signed a statement condoning his murder.

Taseer’s daughter Shehrbano is a recent graduate working as a journalist for Newsweek in Lahore told a UK based journalist, Samira Shackle, “Very few people condemned my father’s murder. Everyone was so petrified that they’d be next. That’s how terrorists operate. We went ten steps back.”

Both Bhatti and Taseer (high-profile members of the ruling party) openly advocated the release of an illiterate and poor Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, 45, from District Jail Sheikhupura, who was sentenced to death under Section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on 8th November 2010 for allegedly committing blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. Consequently, Islamists started an aggressive campaign against them and some Muslim religious leaders publicly instigated their murder.

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There have been at least 51 cases where suspected blasphemers were either extra judicially murdered or died in jail. In the latest case this year, Shaukat Ali, 35, mysteriously died in Lahore Camp Jail on 17th July.

On 11th November 2010, Imran Latif, 22, was shot dead in Lahore after being released on bail on 3rd November 2010.

Two Christian brothers, Pastor Rashid Emmanuel, 32, and Sajid Emmanuel, 30, accused of blasphemy were shot dead on 19th July 2010 outside a court in Faisalabad city whilst in the police custody.

On 1st August 2009, about three thousand charged Muslims attacked a Christian locality in Gojra city after an alleged desecration of Holy Quran by a Christian, Talib Masih, in Korian Wala village (about seven kilometers from Gojra), nine Christians were killed (seven were burnt alive including four women and two children), and around 150 homes and two churches were knocked down. Just, two days earlier, 50 homes of Christian community and two churches in Korian Wala village were also burnt down.

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In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, about 97 per cent of the population is Muslim. The religious minorities represent only 3 per cent of the total population.

Religious minorities have been facing continuing violence for a very long time, which is mainly, caused by the blasphemy allegations, which are often false, and the misuse of the other Islamic laws such as Hudood Ordinances and Law of Evidence. The minorities are generally living under constant fear. Many have the view that if they will make a fuss, they will be easily accused of blasphemy.

A Pakistani Church leader Father James Channan OP said, “Our churches, hospitals and schools have been attacked and over 300 houses of Christians in Shanti Nagar, Korian Wala, Sangla Hill and Gojra, etc. have been burnt by the fanatics.”

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There is little doubt that it is hard to get justice in these kinds of cases. All the state apparatus, whether they are functioning under pressure or because of their religious feelings, act against the accused person. The most dangerous aspect of the laws is that the burden of proof is on the accused person not on the other way round.

The well-known international human rights organization Amnesty International claims, “The blasphemy laws are vaguely formulated and arbitrarily enforced by the police and judiciary in a way which amounts to harassment and persecution of religious minorities.”

These laws clearly contradict the basic principles of the Pakistani constitution, and the international protocols and conventions. Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (UDHR) Article 18 categorically says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

Despite continues demand of Pakistani civil society, international human rights organizations and international community in general; the state of Pakistan does not take any measures to follow international human rights standards regarding these laws. Minorities say that through these laws the state has institutionalized their persecution and have created a climate of vigilantism.

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