Persistent persecution

threat

Persistent persecution

Ahmadi community in Faisalabad keeps carrying the tag of ‘liable to be killed’ with no security

By Aoun Sahi

September 18, 2010

Naseem Ahmad Butt, 55, father of four daughters and a son and a follower of Ahmadi school of thought, was sleeping in the courtyard of his house in Muzaffar Colony in Faisalabad on the night of September 4, 2011 when four unidentified attackers broke into his house and attacked him. He received one bullet in his chest while the second one ruptured his kidney.

The firing woke up his wife whose cries forced the attackers to flee. “My brother was lying in a pool of blood when I saw him. He told me that the attackers were between 20 and 25 years old. One of them kicked him and when he woke up, they shot him. He died in a local hospital seven hours after the attack,” Khalid Pervez Butt, younger brother of Naseem Butt, tells TNS.

Naseem used to work as a technician in a local powerloom and had no enmity. “The attackers did not steal anything from his house. Being Ahmadi seems to be his only ‘sin’ that made him liable to be killed,” says Khalid Butt. His first cousin Naseer Butt was also killed in a similar fashion on September 8, 2010. “Police has made no effort to trace his killers. However, in a hope of assistance, I have got a case registered with police under section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code,” he tells TNS, adding that it is the fourth murder in his family.

“In 1994, one of my younger brothers and one of my first cousins (younger brother of Naseer Butt) were killed by religious fanatics. Police had arrested the assailants. Local activists of religious parties held protest rallies against the arrests of culprits and one of the assailants had been released just a few months back,” he says.

Three days after this incident on September 7, 2011, another Ahmadi, Chaudhry Basheer Ahmad, was attacked in Rachna Town in Sheikhupura district. He received three bullets and is still in hospital in a critical condition.

September has always been a tough month for Ahmadis in Pakistan as on September 7, 1974, the Parliament of Pakistan declared them non-Muslims. Almost all religious parties hold rallies and gatherings in the first week of September every year against Ahmadis. Majlis-e Tahffuz-e Khatm-e Nubuwwat takes the lead and arranges an annual gathering to celebrate victory against Ahmadis every year in Rabwah — the Jama’at Ahmadiya’s headquarters in Pakistan.

“Faisalabad has become one of the toughest cities in Pakistan for Ahmadis to live in,” Syed Mahmood Ahmad, secretary of the Faisalabad chapter of Jama’at Ahmadiya, tells TNS. “Naseem Butt was neither an active member of our Jama’at nor was an influential person. He was killed only because of his religious beliefs. Within days after his killing, unidentified people have written slogans like ‘slaves of the companions of Prophet (PBUH) and ‘down with Qadyaniat’ on the walls of Muzaffar Colony.

In May this year, a pamphlet terming Ahmadis ‘liable to be killed’ was distributed in Faisalabad. “It also carried names and addresses of prominent Ahmadis in Faisalabad. We have time and again contacted the Faisalabad police that a group of fanatics is threatening Ahmadis in the area. But no action has ever been taken,” says Ahmad. “On June 2, 2011, I sent an email to the home secretary and the police chief of Punjab as well as Faisalabad’s regional police officer, but nothing has been done to help us.”

Over the past two years, as many as six Ahmadis have been killed in Faisalabad, but no killer has been brought to book. “Religious fanatics are being encouraged by a lack of action on the part of the government agencies. It has even become too tough for Ahmadi youth to get education in public sector universities. A few months back, four girls belonging to our community were expelled from National Textile University. The 2010 annual magazine of that university carried three articles against Ahmadis,” says Mahmood Ahmad.

Police officials in Faisalabad do not seem to have taken the issue seriously. “We have no resources to provide special security for Ahmadis,” Shakir Hussain Dawar, senior police official in Faisalabad, tells TNS. “As far as Naseem Butt’s murder is concerned, we are investigating it from all angles. We have not ruled out the possibility of religious factor,” he says.

Saleemuddin, the Jama’at spokesperson, says that Ahmadis are being threatened all across the country, adding that Faisalabad has become the most hostile city towards the Ahmadis. “Most hate material is being generated and funded there. Eleven Ahmadis have been killed in Faisalabad since 1984.” In May last year, more than 88 people were killed in Lahore when gunmen opened fire at two separate places of worship of Ahmadis. “One year has passed, but no progress has been made in the case.”

Human rights activists have termed the situation deplorable. They are worried about the situation and have been writing constantly to the government about the security of Ahmadis. “Faisalabad has become a test case for the government to check the persecution of Ahmadis. The opponents of Ahmadis have even published their addresses and phone numbers on the pamphlets distributed in Faisalabad around three months back. No action has been taken against the culprits. It seems that the persecution will continue,” says HRCP Director IA Rehman.

URL: www.jang.com.pk/thenews/.../dia.htm#4

Morden man fears for brother named on Ahmadiyya Muslim murder list in Pakistan

News

Morden man fears for brother named on Ahmadiyya Muslim murder list in Pakistan

12:25pm Friday 5th August 2011

By Omar Oakes »

Fears: Chaudhary Nawaz shows a list of names of people, including his brother, who are “liable to be murdered” in Pakistan

The brother of a Pakistani man whose name was published on a religious murder list by Muslim fanatics has said he is distraught with worry.

Chaudhary Nawaz, from Hillcross Avenue in Morden, said his brother Dr Muhammad Nawaz, a technology college academic in Pakistan, had gone into hiding for fear of being murdered for being an Ahmadi Muslim.

Ahmadi Muslims are not considered Islamic in Pakistan under the Government’s strict blasphemy laws and this list of prominent Ahmadis is being widely distributed in Faisalabad, a textile hub in the Punjab province.

The list is published on a pamphlet given out widely in shopping areas and claims: “To shoot such people is an act of jihad [struggle of faith] and to kill such people is an act of sawab [reward].”

Mr Nawaz, 48, said: “I can’t tell you how worried I am. Sometimes I try not to think about it because I am so frightened about what could happen.

“My brother is a good man, an educator. He doesn’t deserve to be targeted like this.

“I feel helpless because he is thousands of miles away and I can’t help him.”

Mr Nawaz, a senior member of the Morden district of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, said his brother cannot leave Faisalabad because he has to care for their mother, an 82-year-old Alzheimer’s sufferer.

A similar list of Ahmadis was published two years ago in Faisalabad. Three people on that list were murdered by militants in a crowded market bazaar in April 2010.

Nearly two months later, 94 Ahmadis were murdered in mosques in Lahore.

Last October, the Wimbledon Guardian revealed how religious hatred by hardline Muslims towards Ahmadis was being demonstrated on a much smaller scale in south London, which is home to their UK headquarters, the massive Bait-ul-Futuh mosque in London Road, Morden.

Our investigation revealed Sheikh Suliman Gani, imam at the Tooting Islamic Centre (TIC), had told worshippers to boycott Ahmadi businesses, leading to financial hardship for shop owners and the sacking of a worker who would not renounce his religion.

The Khatme Nabuwwat Academy, an East London-based religious group affiliated to the Pakistan-based Khatme Nabuwwat, was invited to talk at the TIC last year.

The Khatme Nabuwwat’s Pakistani-based website describes Ahmadis as “nothing but a gang of traitors, apostates and infidels”.

Copyright 2001-2010 Wimbledon Guardian, UK. All rights reserved.
URL: www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news/9180679.Man_fears.../

Blasphemy: Pakistan’s descent into anarchy

Blasphemy: Pakistan’s descent into anarchy

by by Khubaib Usmani
Saturday, 21 August 2010

Upon Pakistan’s declaration as an Islamic republic, the rights of religious minorities, particularly Hindus, Christians, and Ahmadiyya, diminished.

The widow of Bantu Masih hurls her pet hens inside the cage as she prepares dinner. Her only son Bagga, a scavenger, will return sometime after a full day’s tedious labour. The family lives in a remote locality 65 km from Lahore. They had to shift here overnight, after an enraged crowd killed Bantu Masih, the sole breadwinner of the family, over alleged charges of blasphemy in court premises.

Human rights organisations and secular circles in Pakistan have been condemning the abuse of blasphemy laws in the country for the last many decades. Introduced by military dictator General Zia, the law is termed draconian by human rights organisations of the country fast descending down to further anarchy and chaos due to religious fanaticism.

Analysts believe this is the worst form of human right violation and no government in Pakistan could get rid of this despicable use of the law, the seeds of which were sown in 1949 when Liaqat Ali Khan, the country’s first prime minister made it a preamble of the constitution. The Objectives Resolution passed by the first Constituent Assembly in 1949 including 280 Articles and six Schedules became its preamble. The power to amend the Constitution was contained in Article 239.

The country’s checkered history saw the 1956 and 1962 constitutions, but no government in Pakistan could dare to part ways with the controversial Objective Resolution which many believe to be in direct confrontation with the ideology of the Quaid-e-Azam who in his landmark address to the First Legislative Assembly said:

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”

It is surprising as to why a staunch supporter of secularism like Bhutto could not do away with the controversial resolution while he is credited with giving a consensus document after 26 years of the country’s independence. Gen Zia cunningly used religion for his own nefarious designs. He exploited the sentiments of extremist segments in the name of religion when the former USSR invaded Afghanistan. Few believe that it was Pakistan’s war on any account. Sentiments of the public had been deliberately exploited in the name of religion with financial backing of the West.

“The Blasphemy Law is the culmination of the sojourn the nation set upon itself in 1949,” commented a senior human rights activist who requested anonymity. “Jinnah wanted to make Pakistan a secular state but the country lost direction following his untimely death. Upon Pakistan’s declaration as an Islamic republic, the rights of religious minorities, particularly Hindus, Christians, and Ahmadiyya, diminished. These minorities live under the fear of threat to their lives and property, desecration of their places of worship, and the Blasphemy Act that carries a penalty of death,” he observed.

The frenzied mob mentality and the knee-jerk reaction on the streets following a blasphemy charge is a real source of concern for human rights organisations of the country. “Trapping anyone in the vicious cobweb of blasphemy is the easiest job in Pakistan,” says an activist of human rights commission of Pakistan who wished to remain anonymous.

It was not that long ago when Gojra, a small city in the heartland of Punjab witnessed frenzied mob attacks on Christian neighbourhoods which killed nine. The attacks were triggered by reports of desecration of the Holy Quran. It was reported that Mukhtar Maseeh, Talib Maseeh and his son Imran Maseeh had desecrated the papers inscribed with Holy Quran verses at a wedding ceremony. Before the tragic attack in Gojra, mosques were used to make announcements provoking the attack. Locals were urged to “make mincemeat of the Christians” before Gojra. Similarly, in Daudnagar announcements were made from mosques asking people to come out to “fight rampaging” Christians.

On October 28, 2001 in Lahore, militants killed 15 Christians at a church, three weeks after the US-led War in Afghanistan to topple the Taliban. On September 25, 2002, unidentified gunmen shot dead seven people at a Christian charity in Karachi’s central business district. They entered the third-floor offices of the Institute for Peace and Justice (IPJ) and shot their victims in the head. All of the victims were Pakistani Christians.

In November 2005, hundreds of militants attacked Christians in Sangla Hill in the Punjab province and destroyed Roman Catholic, Salvation Army and United Presbyterian churches. The attack was over allegations of violation of blasphemy laws by a Pakistani Christian named Yousaf Masih.

In February 2006, churches and Christian schools were targeted in protests over the publications of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons in Denmark, leaving two elderly women injured and many homes and properties destroyed. A young Hindu labourer, a few months back, was beaten black and blue by his own colleagues in Karachi on the pretext that he used derogatory language against the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The victim died on the spot and his family could not dare to lodge a complaint in the local police station and the police arrested no one. The incident happened in broad day light at a construction site in Karachi. The heirs of the deceased disappeared from their native abode on the fear of further persecution by the locals

“We need a paradigm realignment of the country, unless Pakistani is declared a secular state there will not be any tangible development on human rights front” concludes Muneer Ahmad who is pursuing a master’s degree in History from a well recognized public sector university. According to Minority Rights Group International, Pakistan had the world’s highest increase of threats against minorities last year and was ranked the sixth most dangerous country for minorities overall. Pakistan was ranked after Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

URL: http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/1172/blasphemy-pakistans-descent-into-anarchy/

Jungle justice

FROM THE PAPER » EDITORIAL

Jungle justice

   Dawn Editorial

   Wednesday, 21 Jul, 2010

Policemen fire teargas shells to disperse the protesters during a demonstration against the killing of two Christian brothers outside the court building in Faisalabad. — Online Photo

There have been several instances where police apathy, perhaps in some cases connivance, has led to under-trial prisoners being targeted by vengeful elements on the court premises.

Where the charge involves religion, there is a greater need for the police to be vigilant when escorting the accused to or from court, given the kind of fury that allegations of blasphemy unleash. Sadly, this is far from the case in Pakistan as exemplified by the killing of two Christian brothers by a group of masked men on the premises of a Faisalabad sessions court on Monday. The brothers were accused of distributing blasphemous material — that, unbelievably, also contained phone numbers. The men had been brought to court under police escort to obtain remand. Such cases are a reminder of how allegations of blasphemy can be used to incite jungle justice and mob violence that often mask the real motives behind the targeting of individuals. The motives can range from the settling of personal scores to property disputes.

Monday’s killings led to violent protests by the Christian community in the brothers’ native area of Daoodnagar; a section of the Muslim community reacted by asking the people over mosque loudspeakers to “fight the rampaging” Christians. The situation grew volatile enough to necessitate the imposition of Section 144 for the maintenance of public order. The result is the creation of an atmosphere of fear and violent mistrust that could lead to the targeting of more members of the Christian community. This situation can also be exploited by ill-intentioned groups such as the land mafia. This has, indeed, often proved to be the case in earlier incidents of violence involving allegations of blasphemy, particularly in Punjab.

Arrests under Section 295-C of the PPC for allegations of blasphemy illustrates the dangers inherent in a law that lends itself to misuse. The blasphemy law is rightly criticised for the manner in which it can be abused. We must also note that it helps foster a societal mindset of jungle justice where individuals feel that it is right to take the law into their own hands. The blasphemy law must be repealed.

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved

URL: www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content...rial/jungle-justice-170

Vulnerable minorities [Editorial]

---Daily Dawn, Pakistan

Vulnerable minorities

   Dawn Editorial
   Monday, 24 May, 2010

The EU parliament has rapped Pakistan hard on the knuckles for its poor minority rights record — and rightly so. It has also demanded a review of the infamous blasphemy law that has lent itself to misuse, to the extent of justifying murder.

While it is not clear if the European MPs were provoked by a particular incident, one cannot deny that Pakistan has to put in far more effort to gain the trust of its minorities. There are some laws on the statute books — including the blasphemy law — that actively operate against minorities. Although the constitution pledges protection for the rights of minorities, it also contains provisions that have caused a sense of insecurity among them. Attempts have been made to modify some laws, but the situation has not really changed on the ground. The blasphemy law that was introduced by the military regime of Gen Ziaul Haq is the most draconian and open to abuse. It has been used on a number of occasions to penalise communities that are not Muslim, with entire villages having been set on fire — Shantinagar is still fresh in our memory. An attempt by the Musharraf government to modify the process of registering a case under this law also ran into trouble.

With social prejudices increasing in an atmosphere of growing religiosity, it seems that minorities are becoming more vulnerable, even if they have rights under the law. Moreover, against a background of growing lawlessness in the country, they face a real danger of being targeted physically. They are discriminated against and, what is worse, cannot expect any protection from the state. The government must take a firm stand on their rights even if it means standing up to those obscurantist elements that have always opposed greater rights for Pakistan’s minorities. This government would be issuing a political statement in support of the minorities if it were to work towards repealing the blasphemy law. A campaign is also needed to make people aware of the virtues of tolerance. Without a change in the public mindset the current environment of hostility will remain.

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved
URL : www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn...religious-freedom-250-hh-09