What solidarity? What harmony? When the members of a minority group are not safe from the hands of their fellow citizens, even in their holiest month of the year.
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times
By Usman Javed | July 29, 2014
An act of violence due to religious hatred is no new news in Pakistan, but an atrocity in the last days of the holy month of Ramadan, is a shameful act indeed. On the evening of July 27th , Ahmadi houses were set on fire by an Islamist mob in People’s Colony of Gujranwala. While the police watched, three people (one fifty five year old women and two minors) suffocated to death while four others were critically injured. One of the injured was a pregnant women who endured a miscarriage due to the injuries suffered during the fire.
Houses looted and burned, lives lost, infant’s dead. And all of this, a day before the blessed festival of Eid. The day of Eid has come and gone, and Muslims all over the country celebrated the exalted day in the Islamic Calendar, wishing each other warm greetings of “Eid Mubarak” with three hugs. Gestures meant to represent solidarity, brotherhood, and harmony amongst each other.
But, What solidarity? What harmony? When the members of a minority group are not safe from the hands of their fellow citizens, even in their holiest month of the year. What is perhaps worse is that people responsible for this barbarous and ruthless crime still think that they were in the right in doing so. No arrests were made, no one was charged with the heinous crime and no voices were raised on the mainstream media or television, condemning the horrible act of violence.
Though the news got widespread social-media attention; numerous members of the community tweeted their expressions of distress and sorrow, majority of Pakistani officials, members of the government and the media have remained silent. These authorities have previously argued loudly for the hundreds of innocent Palestinians suffering as a result of the escalation of the recent conflict, however, unfortunately are oblivious to the events of their own state.
This article is to serve as a special appeal to the Pakistani government that religious persecution is one of the biggest challenges facing the nation today and such acts of violence should not go ignored. The government authorities, NGO’s, political and social commentators and human rights activist should take a note of this fateful incident and make efforts to condemn it. Feel the pain of these poor victims, their families and friends. Only then is to possible to have a Pakistan free of such hateful crimes.
Usman Javed
Toronto, Canada
-- Perspective: Minority Persecution in Pakistan
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