Violence kills 68 non-Muslims in Pakistan

Sixty-eight persons – Christians, Hindus and Sikhs – have died in Muslim-majority Pakistan, media reports say, where negligence is rampant and discrimination and social out-casting are institutionalised.

Hindu Rights Movement of Pakistan chairman Haroon Sarabdyal claimed that the victims included 28 Sikhs, 30 Christians, and 10 Hindus.

They were “targeted attacks”, but the attackers had not been arrested.

The Pakistan Hindu Council’s patron-in-chief, Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani said the PHC stood “firmly with the families of the deceased, and demands that the higher authorities punish the culprits at any cost.”

Head of the Anglican Church of Pakistan, Bishop Dr Azad Marshall said in a press statement (April 4, 2023): “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the targeting of innocent civilians because of their religious beliefs or ethnicity.”

“We call on the government to take strong action against Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of the Jamaat-e-Islami and all others who use hate speech and incite violence against innocent people,” the Bishop said.

Chitrali has angered the Christian community for calling the Bible, Torah and Psalms “cancelled scriptures”, while speaking on the floor of the National Assembly last week.

“We have also noted with concern how the Speaker of the National Assembly ignored Chitrali’s remarks and didn’t allow a Christian lawmaker to counter it.

"The floor of the House is not meant to demean any religion and we expect the Speaker will take cognizance of this fact and not allow any person to spew hatred against other faiths,” Marshall said.

Shahzad Murad, the vicar of All Saints Church in Peshawar, condemned the latest attacks of terrorism against non-Muslims and urged the government to ensure the protection of those communities and pay compensation to the families of terror victims.

He told Dawn (April 4, 2023) that the members of minority communities were “soft targets” for the anti-state elements.

Women’s Action Forum (WAF) said: “We reiterate our strong condemnation and protest at the continued target killing of members of Pakistan’s vulnerable religious, sectarian, ethnic and caste minorities, particularly the Hindu, Scheduled Castes, Christian, Sikh, Kalasha, Shia, Ahmadi, Hazara communities; as well as the federal and provincial governments’ abject failure to prevent killings and their inability to provide effective protection to our beleaguered targeted communities.”

Struggling to be heard in the current economic stress and political turmoil in Pakistan theirs are the feeble voices of religious minorities are rattled by the rising incidents of violence against innocent Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs.

They feel they are paying for the collateral damage that the current situation is causing, but for which they are not in any way responsible.

They have spoken since they fear that the impending elections this year will worsen their conditions.

Community leaders see a pattern of lawlessness and say that those targeted were hapless incidents, who had played no role whatsoever in the current crisis. Pakistan’s population is overwhelmingly Muslim.

Its 2017 census estimated there to be 2.6 million Christians, about 1.27 per cent of the total population, making them Pakistan’s second-largest religious minority after Hindus.

In a detailed dispatch on April 9, 2023, Qatar-based Al Jazeera narrated the plight of the Christians who are ‘pushed’ to the bottom of the social ladder as sweepers, scavengers and cleaners of sewage.

The last task alone has killed many because of the toxic gas sludge produced. Pakistan is equally discriminatory against its other minorities with roots in Islam like the Ahmadis and Hazaras.

They, indeed, are subject to laws that forbid them to practice Islamic practices. Shaida Raza, a national hockey player and a Hazara, was killed while trying to enter the United States last month.

Her family said that left with no avenues to play or to work, she had gone to seek a better life.