Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Excerpts
Source & Credit: UNHCR | March 11, 2010
By US Department of State, Publisher
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
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Attacks on houses of worship, religious gatherings, and religious leaders linked to sectarian, religious extremist, and terrorist groups outside FATA resulted in hundreds of deaths reported during the year. The HRCP reported that through August sectarian violence killed 215 persons and injured 573. Examples of these cases include the following:
On July 31 and August 1, Muslim mobs, reportedly inspired by supporters of the banned Sipah-e-Sahba Pakistan sectarian extremist organization, attacked the Christian communities living in Gojra and Korian localities, near Toba Tek Singh, Punjab, following allegations that local Christians had desecrated the Holy Koran.
The mob killed eight Christians and burned nearly 100 houses as police failed to stop the violence. The National Assembly adopted a unanimous resolution condemning the Gojra killings, and the Punjab minorities affairs minister registered a legal complaint against the participants. At year's end police had arrested 42 individuals in connection with the Gojra incident, of whom 34 were released on bail and eight remained in custody at Toba Tek Singh. In the Korian case, police arrested 54 individuals, of whom 43 were released on bail and 11 remained in jail. The provincial government initiated a program to construct new houses for members of the Christian community who lost their homes in the violence. The reconstruction program was ongoing at year's end.
By year's end authorities had not taken further action to investigate the following 2008 cases: the April beating death of Jagdish Kumar, the May killing of Adeel Masih, or the June bombing at a Shia mosque in Dera Ismail Khan, NWFP.
By year's end the government had not taken steps to address the September 2008 killings of Dr. Abdul Mannan Siddiqui and Seth Muhammad Yousuf, two Ahmadi leaders in Sindh. In September 2008 the local anchor of a religious affairs program on Geo Television, Amir Liaquat Hussain, declared that Islamic teachings necessitated the killing of members of the Ahmadi sect and prompted two religious scholars who were guests on the program to affirm his position.
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Police reportedly tortured and mistreated those in custody and at times engaged in extrajudicial killings. Christian and Ahmadi communities claimed their members were more likely to be abused. Non-Muslim prisoners generally were afforded poorer facilities than Muslim inmates and often suffered violence at the hands of fellow inmates.
Following a complaint of torture by Mirza Sarfaraaz, a death row inmate in Adiala Prison, the judiciary launched an inquiry into prison conditions and the prisons department in June 2008. The inquiry revealed that prisoners who did not pay bribes were brutalized. According to the Geo TV Web site, Adiala Jail held more than 5,000 prisoners, but the jail has a capacity of 1,994.
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Police often failed to protect members of religious minorities from societal attacks, including Christians, Ahmadis, and Shias.
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Courts routinely failed to protect the rights of religious minorities. Judges were pressured to take strong action against any perceived offense to Sunni orthodoxy. The judiciary rarely heard discrimination cases dealing with religious minorities.
Laws prohibiting blasphemy continued to be used against Christians, Ahmadis, and members of other religious groups, including Muslims. Lower courts often did not require adequate evidence in blasphemy cases, which led to some accused and convicted persons spending years in jail before higher courts eventually overturned their convictions or ordered them freed.
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Freedom of Assembly
Although the constitution provides for this right, in practice the government placed selective restrictions on the right to assemble. By law district authorities can prevent gatherings of more than four people without police authorization. Separately, Ahmadis have been prohibited from holding conferences or gatherings since 1984.
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Freedom of Religion
The constitution states that adequate provisions shall be made for minorities to profess and practice their religions freely, but the government limited freedom of religion in practice. Islam is the state religion, and the constitution requires that laws be consistent with Islam. The Federal Shariat court ensures that laws are consistent with Shari'a. All citizens are subject to the blasphemy laws. Freedom of speech is constitutionally subject to "any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam."
According to the HRCP, there was an increase in cases of violence against minorities during the year. Reprisals and threats of reprisals against suspected converts from Islam occurred. Members of religious minorities were subject to violence and harassment, and at times police refused to prevent such actions or charge persons who committed them, leading to an atmosphere of impunity. The constitution stipulates the president and the prime minister must be Muslim. The prime minister, federal ministers, and ministers of state, as well as elected members of the Senate and National Assembly (including non-Muslims), must take an oath to "strive to preserve the Islamic ideology," the basis for the creation of the country.
Religious groups must be approved and registered; there were no reports that the government refused to register any group.
The law declares the Ahmadi community, which considers itself a Muslim sect, to be a non-Muslim minority. The law prohibits Ahmadis, who numbered more than two million, from engaging in any Muslim practices, including use of Muslim greetings, referring to their places of worship as mosques, reciting Islamic prayers, using specific Islamic terms, and participating in the Hajj or Ramadan fast. Ahmadis were prohibited from proselytizing, holding gatherings, or distributing literature. Government forms, including passport applications and voter registration documents, require anyone wishing to be listed as a Muslim to denounce the founder of the Ahmadi faith. According to Ahmadiyya Foreign Mission, during the year 11 Ahmadis were killed due to their faith; there were nine targeted attacks against Ahmadis that resulted in several serious injuries; 37 Ahmadis were charged under blasphemy laws; and 57 Ahmadis were charged under Ahmadi-specific laws. At year's end no Ahmadi was in prison on charges of desecration of the Koran.
The penal code calls for the death sentence or life imprisonment for anyone who blasphemes the Prophet Muhammad. The law provides for life imprisonment for desecrating the Koran and up to 10 years in prison for insulting another's religious beliefs with the intent to offend religious feelings. The latter penalty was used only against those who allegedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad. On January 22, police arrested Hector Aleem, the country director of a Christian human rights NGO, after a member of a militant Islamic organization accused him of sending a blasphemous text message from his cell phone. Although the blasphemy charges were dropped after evidence showed the text message was not sent from Aleem's cell phone, the charges of abetting blasphemy stood. A judge denied bail on April 30 and remanded Aleem into custody "for his own protection" after a religious extremist lawyer threatened his life in a court hearing, according to CLAAS. At the end of the year, Aleem remained in jail awaiting trial on charges of abetting blasphemy.
On January 28, authorities arrested five Ahmadis, including four teenage students and one adult, for carving the name of the Prophet Muhammad onto the walls of a bathroom stall at a mosque in Punjab province. According to the AHRC, no evidence suggested the five individuals were responsible, and authorities did not conduct any investigation before the arrest. The four students who allegedly defaced the stalls at the behest of the adult had no connection to the mosque and did not live nearby, and a police official said police were not aware of any substantial evidence that linked the students with the crime. According to the AHRC, the district police officer told family members of the accused that police were under pressure from religious fundamentalists to act against the students. The students were released in July.
There were no developments regarding the June 2008 case in which police charged all the residents of Rabwah in Punjab under anti-Ahmadi laws and arrested Muhammad Yunus for lighting fireworks and lamps and greeting each other, which the government considered to be preaching their faith, a crime by law.
Police closed the Ahmadi centers in August 2008 following a citizen complaint that Ahmadis were attempting to proselytize. The centers were permitted to reopen on the condition that they remove the Kalima (the recitation of the Shahada, the Islamic recitation of faith) from their centers.
On December 14, a local court acquitted and freed Christian Gulsher Masih and his daughter, Sandal Gulsher. They had been detained in October 2008 in Faisalabad after the father was accused of desecrating the Koran.
There were no developments in the 2007 case in which an Intelligence Bureau district officer ordered the arrest of five Ahmadis, including two minors, after a teacher discovered the minors carrying an Ahmadi children's magazine. After the case received wide media coverage, the charges were dropped but then re-filed in February 2007 against two adults.
By the end of the year, there were no developments in the trial of the 2007 case of a retired assistant sub-inspector who shot and killed a recent Ahmadi convert in a restaurant in Seerah, near Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab. At year's end he was incarcerated and the case was pending.
Martha Bibi, a Christian who was arrested for blasphemy in 2007, was granted bail; at year's end her case was pending in a local court.
Complaints under the blasphemy laws were used to harass rivals in business or personal disputes. Most complaints under these laws were filed against the majority Sunni Muslim community by other Sunnis. Appellate courts dismissed most blasphemy cases; the accused, however, often remained in jail for years awaiting the court's decision. Trial courts were reluctant to release on bail or acquit blasphemy defendants for fear of violence from extremist religious groups. In 2005 a law went into effect revising the complaint process and requiring senior police officials to review such cases in an effort to eliminate spurious charges. According to human rights and religious freedom groups, this process was not effective because senior police officers did not have the resources to review the cases. There were no legal restrictions on Christian or Hindu places of worship. District nazims had to authorize construction after they assessed the need for a new church or temple. Religious minority groups experienced bureaucratic delays and requests for bribes – routine obstacles all religious groups faced – when they attempted to build houses of worship or to obtain land.
Islamiyyat (Islamic studies) was compulsory for all Muslim students in state-run schools. Students of other faiths were exempt from such classes; in practice, teachers forced non-Muslim students to complete Islamic studies.
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Societal Abuses and Discrimination
Sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia extremists continued during the year. Shias, Christians, and Ahmadis were the targets of religious violence across the country.
In April militants began attacking the Sikh population, particularly in the Qasimkhel and Ferozkhel areas of lower Orakzai in the FATA. For example, on April 13, militants kidnapped local Sikh leader Kalyan Singh, forcing the community to pay 50 million rupees ($595,000) as a "non-Muslim tax" (jizya). The ransom was later reduced to 15 million rupees ($178,500). The Sikh community ultimately abandoned its homes in Orakzai.
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According to Pakistan Christian Post, on August 28, militants shot and killed six Christians and injured seven in the city of Quetta in Balochistan. The incident coincided with the Balochistan observance of the death anniversary of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the leader of the Bugti tribe who was killed by the Pakistani military in 2006.
The government did not address the 2008 attacks against one church, one Hindu temple, and five Ahmadi mosques in Punjab.
Since the promulgation of the Anti-Ahmadiyya Ordinance in 1984, 295 Ahmadis have faced charges, and at the end of the year two Ahmadis were in prison under the blasphemy laws.
The National Commission for Justice and Peace noted that abductions and forced conversions of Christians and Hindus were on the rise. It reported in December that 20 Christian and 21 Hindus were forced to convert to Islam during the year, of whom 15 were men, 13 women, and four children.
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The Hindu community continued to face harassment and demands for bribes from security forces. In April a minority minister in the Sindh Assembly claimed that 18 Hindu women had been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and that one of them was killed. He claimed that approximately 30 to 35 members of religious minorities had been kidnapped, resulting in one death.
Ahmadi leaders charged that militant Sunni mullahs and their followers sometimes staged marches through the streets of Rabwah, a predominantly Ahmadi town and spiritual center in central Punjab. Ahmadis claimed that police generally were present during the marches.
Ahmadi, Christian, Hindu, and Shia Muslim communities reported significant discrimination in employment and access to education, including government institutions. These communities also faced societal violence. The National Education Policy mandated Islamic studies in schools; non-Muslim students could opt out of the course in favor of a more general ethics course. Several minority religious groups claimed the policy infringed on the religious freedom of non-Muslim students and made textbooks more biased toward Islam by removing information regarding the practices of other religions.
Although there were few Jewish citizens in the country, anti-Semitic sentiments appeared to be widespread.
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The government required voters to indicate their religion when registering to vote. The Ahmadi community boycotted the elections, according to the EU Election Observation Mission, because they were required to register on a separate voter roll.
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Read the entire report here: Pakistan: 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
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