I learnt from Richard Aldrich, professor of International Security, University of Warwick and an eminent authority on intelligence, that inquisitiveness about what cooks in neighbor’s pot and under his quilt was one of the primitive ingredients that went in making the science and art of intelligence.

Besides Jihadist upsurge, Pakistan is beset with several other ailments which have plagued its civil society across the board. These ailments are not well publicized and only occasionally Pakistani media and to a very little extent international media pay attention to these malaises. Let us visit our favorite neighbor Pakistan what is usually cooked in its pot, other than Talibani and Lashkar and al Qaeda broth. The global community is not well informed of what’s really cooking on the other darker areas of Minority bashing by the religious fanatics in Pakistan. They take advantage archaic Blasphemy Act and other medieval provisions introduced by Zia-ul- Haq and perpetuated by the Ulama community.

Let us focus attention on the beleaguered Christian community of Pakistan. Minority persecution is a trademark for most Pakistani sectarian militant organisation, especially the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Sipah Sahaba. When I say this, I equally castigate minority bashing by certain pro-Hindutwa chauvinists. But the scale of oppression against the Christians in Pakistan is appalling. This has developed as a pattern and all over Pakistan most minority religious groups; especially the Christians are systematically persecuted.

Recently I received three communications, one from NWFP and the others from somewhere near Lahore. The letters were from prominent Christians in two different provinces. I quote the letters sans the real names of the senders and their exact locations.

“I am feeling very pity and difficult from where should I start and for what I would start I/we are in such a vicissitudes which even have stuck the brain to think and act. You may find this email very strange! But I/we are in Trauma.

Dear you are very well aware about the circumstances we are going through particularly one can imagine as a minority what would be our situation in this time (state of war) and one even do not know for what reason he/she has been assassinated. Anyway we were and are not living but struggling to live or fighting for our survival. Every second day brings something new in our country and we get in new crises namely War against Terror, political, judiciary, water, power, food, fuel and blab blab…; the law n order situation is never ever under control. The Government supremacy is nowhere in the country and their transgressions have taken us further in worse situation. I would say this is totally a potpourri Govt. On the other end the inflation really has broken the back born of individual’s budget.

In the sequence of different issues raised the World Recognized Leader was assassinated in on 27 December 2007. Which was not only shocked me but even to the whole world. My very little daughter was about 3 years at that time and she said “Papa my friend (who even could not pronounce her name) Baibazeer Bhutto ki death hogai”. I do not why but whenever my little use to se Benazir Bhutto on screen, she use to say “she is my friend”.

With Best Regards and God Bless You…”

I have edited this letter for ensuring safety of the writer. The other letter from somewhere near Lahore is more pathetic. In this case also I have edited heavily to protect identity of the sender.

“Sir, we read you regularly and derive inspiration. But village Korian on July 30 and in Gojra on August 10, 2009, where Christian homes were attacked, burnt, their women raped and nearly 15 Christians were killed including four women and children. All because, the Sipah Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Al Qaeda gangs alleged that we had burnt pages of the Koran. The raiders numbering 500 were armed with sword, Kalashnikovs, pistols and they fired in the air to scare the Christians. My neighbour ZZZ was dragged out from his home and was beheaded in front of his children. His wife was grabbed by some militants and taken away. We do not know about her as yet.

One of the raiders threw petrol soaked torch on at least 5 homes of Christians. One woman of about 40 was raped on the open street. They raised slogans: Allha hu Akbar, Jiahil Christan murdabad, Pakistan for Islam etc…They plundered most valuables and desecrated the Holy Bible by urinating on them.

I am ashamed to mention that over 8 Christian women were raped in the open and a girl child who protested against molestation of her mother was killed with a spear. Punjab and Islamabad governments are giving only lip services. Sir, please bring our plights to the notice of the broader world as you have wider readership…”

What really happened on 10th August, 2009 was included in the letter vividly. To summarize, the Muslim militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah Sahaba came from Jhang side. The Jhang-Maghiana belt in Punjab is the cradle of jihadist Islam. This belt has now become a refuge for the Talibanis and al Qaeda cadres. The area is dominated by the Markaz-ud- Dawa and its militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. Both the Jhangvi and Taiba outfits are intricately connected to Jaish-e-Mohammad (Multan area) and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and al Qaeda units in the province. Lahore and Islamabad may not agree, but the fact remains that most parts of Punjab has been radicalized and the militants are eager to either convert the Hindus and the Christians or drive them out.

A map of Gojra area, near Jhang and Lahore would show that it is not a remote village. It is on a main road and there are administrative infrastructures nearby.

Gojra Location

It leaves no doubt from the second letter that the attack was preplanned and there no desecration of Quran. The attack was inspired by hatred against Christian minorities who are equated with the hated Americans.

These two communications from beleaguered minority citizen of Pakistan help opening up the can of worm-box in which the minorities in Pakistan are forced to live and periodically subjected to rapine, arson, murder and mayhem.

Authentic observers commented that the police held back as 75 homes and 2 churches were burnt down. The rampant aggressors lay before emergency services such as the fire and ambulance teams preventing them from reaching the homes in which Christians were roasted alive. A few weeks before the Gojra incident the Muslim militants attacked Christian homes at Kasur, near India Pakistan border.

Another mail from Kasur, on Amritsar and Lahore road conveyed no less a pathetic situation of the Christian and Hindu minorities in the area. The writer conveyed in August 2009, “Only a week back a crowd of 150 armed Muslims reached our village in the outskirts of Kasur from where the police post is only half a kilometer away. Our village XXX Walla on Kasur Deepalpur road has a large number of Muslim populations. The raiders herded us at one place, assaulted some of our leading people and said that we should vacate the village immediately and go over to relief camps and that was the order of the Sipah Sahaba. On way back they torched two homes and carried away a 30 year old lady. She has not returned to village so far…”

The President and the Interior Minister of Pakistan assured adequate help and protection to the Christians in Pakistan. Minority Affiars Minister Shabaz Bhatti visited the Gojra spot of carnage but the Christian inhabitants of Gojra and Sangla are still being threatened by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah Sahaba activists. In spite of such lip services the ground realities are different. According to a PTI dispatch from Islamabad, August 18, 2009 over 2000 thousand Christians were evicted from their lands. “Hundreds of Pakistani Christians are living in tents in Islamabad for the past three months, and most of them claimed they were evicted off their lands without warning by the government citing their religion, a news report has said. They are not war refugees, not displaced by violence; rather they believe they’re here because they are Christian,” the CNN reported.

“Nearly 3,000 Christians have ended up living in tents for the past 3 months. According to the report, they alleged the government kicked them off their land without warning: only because they are Christian. The report said people are dying of poverty and their living conditions are said to be quite pathetic.”

Despite claims by Zardari the Christian population in Pakistan lives in mortal fear of being attacked any time by the Muslim militants on flimsy and cooked up charges of blasphemy. Some Pakistani commentators ascribe growing hostility against the Christians as fundamentalist reaction to US war in Afghanistan and indiscriminate Predator rocket attacks against Pakistani civilians in Swat and Waziristan. They argue that large number of jihadis have taken shelter in the interiors of Punjab and Sind and certain areas of Balochistan. By attacking Christians they try to avenge US attacks on innocent people. However, the salient point remains unanswered: Pakistan is a willing partner of the USA. It is equally responsible for US Predator attacks. Therefore, it is incumbent on the government to protect all minorities, be it the Christians, Sikhs in Swat, and other areas of NWFP. The plight of the Hindu minority is equally distressing in Sind, NWFP and Punjab.

What happened in the aftermath is stranger. Punjabi police have issued warrants for the arrest of the Bishop of Faisalabad and 128 other Christians, charging them with ‘conspiracy’ in the Gojra incident. The FIR was filed against Rt. Rev. John Samuel, the Church of Pakistan’s Bishop of Faislabad and 100 others. It was said to be out of revenge for accusation against police for standing as mere witness when the Gojra carnage took place. Some Pakistani media alleged that a website managed by the Christians, www.pakistanchristianpost.com/voting_result.php?id=51 was taking poll in favour of a separate province for the Christians of Punjab who constitute about 18% of the population. These are wild allegations.

On Augusts 27 The Taliban of Pakistan has kidnapped 8 Christians in South Waziristan according to reports released by political agent of Waziristan Agency.

The Christian were traveling in a truck from North Waziristan to South Waziristan when Taliban stopped them few miles away from Razmak, where they were living from decades. The Christian, Hindus and Sikhs have left tribal area when Taliban imposed protection tax on minorities in January 2009.The Sikhs and Christians were allowed to stay in tribal area after paying ’Jizia” but majority left Taliban controlled FATA and migrated to other parts of Pakistan. The Sikhs and Hindus decided to go to India which brought Protection Tax issue in the media. The recent abduction of 8 Christians have created wave of fear among their relatives living in Punjab and NWFP. There was abduction of 7 Christian from a Church in vicinity of Peshawar University but they were released by Taliban Commander Mangal Shah with a deal from government after two days.

Pakistan has an approximate Christian population of 2, 800, 000 (2008), nearly 1.6% of the population, of which 50% each belong to Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations. Rev. Thomas Valpy was appointed as the first Anglican Bishop of Lahore in 1877. Since then the foreign and indigenous Christians have contributed in the building of the peoples of the Punjab and Indus valley.
Since the creation of Pakistan the Christians have been subjected to discrimination but the trend gained momentum during the regime of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Zia-ul-Haq. Total Islamisation of Pakistan had converted the Punjab region to the main jihadist producing bowl. In recent times Islamist zealots are everywhere even intimidating the ordinary civil society.

In October 2001 after US invasion of Afghanistan following 9/11 the Muslim militants raided a Church and killed 15 Christians all around Pakistan. According to local Christians of Sind, Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP more than 30 Christians were killed but the government of Musharraf suppressed the incidents. In the same year 5 business establishments of the Christians were plundered in Sind and Punjab.

On September 25, 2002 Muslim militants, suspected to be members of Sipah Sahaba raided a Christian locality in Karachi and killed 7 Christians shooting all of them in head from point blank range. After some initial outcry the case was forgotten by the provincial administration. In fact, since 9/11 there have been thirty-six Christians killing in 6 separate attacks against Christians and their schools, churches and villages (up to 2003 figure). It is argued by some Pakistani Muslims that a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism amongst the uneducated poor and their frustration at the plight of Muslims elsewhere in the world leads these militants to lash out against the easy targets within their own country who happen to profess the same religion that is professed by their avowed enemy- the West.

In February 2005 several churches and schools managed by the Christians were attacked and destroyed in Punjab, Sind and NWFP in protest against publication of a controversial cartoon of Prophet Mohammad by a Danish cartoonist. In Hyderabad, Gujranwala and Sheikhupura areas about 10 priests and chaplains were mercilessly beaten.

In November 2005 about 3000 Muslim militants attacked the Christian localities of Sangla Hills (in Jhang area). The raiders were armed with firearms and other lethal weapons. They were led by a fanatic from Muridke-the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba. They burnt down churches belonging to Roman Catholic, Salvation Army and Baptist denominations and destroyed about 25 Christian homes. Sangla is not a village. It has emerged as an industrial area and the Christians are comparatively affluent.

Again in August 2006 the Muslim militants attacked churches and homes in a village near Lahore over alleged land dispute. The raiders wanted to evict the Christians and grab their lands. In the incident 2 Christians were killed.

The Christian Medical Superintendant posted at Bannu was kidnapped by the militants on charges of encouraging music, modern dress and free behavior of women of the area. After prolonged negotiation he was released.

The Bishop of London and the Grand Mufty of Egypt had condemned the Gojra and other attacks. A representative demonstration of the Pakistani Christians before the Pakistani High Commission in London on August 14, 2009 submitted the following demands:

= “We want to see the total abrogation of the unjust Blasphemy Law 295 Section B and C. This act does not even require evidence to be enacted almost encouraging people to use the act to settle personal differences.

= We want equal rights for people from Minority Religious groups so that they can vote in normal elections and stand for parliament and other government positions. Currently, Christians can only vote for Christians in provincial positions allocated to our faith.

= We want the Pakistani Government to apologize for years of discriminatory practice, supporting of intolerance and unjust prison sentences for people from religious minority groups.

= We want the Pakistani Government to allow more people from diverse faiths to seek employment within the Police, Army and other civil service posts.

= We want the Pakistani Government to address the imbalance of opportunity and unequal distribution of wealth for religious minorities.

= We want justice to be served on the intolerant people that have wrecked the lives and been involved in the.”

= We want justice to be served on the intolerant people that have wrecked the lives and been involved in the.”

Based on such developments the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the State Department had declared Pakistan a “country of particular concern.”

Minority bashing, be it Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Ismailis, Shias, Ahmadias are rampant in Pakistan. The Pakistani religious leaders proclaim that only purest form of Sunni Islam of the Hanafi. Salafi schools would be permitted. They forget that the founding father of their nation was a Khoja (shia) Muslim.

Sipah Sahaba (banned) is considered as the mother of all jihadi tanzeems in Pakistan. Its growth all over Pakistan is alarming. Well known Sipah leader Maulana Azam Tariq assumed leadership in 2003. There was nothing secret about him. He can be heard on UTube under the rubric of Radd-e-Shiat (refutation of the Shia) and read what he had to say about Ahmedias and Ismailis too on ahnaf.com. And people believe in what he says to them.

Violence by the Sipah had erupted in Khairpur (Sind) and spread to Gilgit where one can expect more trouble in the coming days. Impact will also be felt in such cities as are home to big Shia settlements: Dera Ismail Khan, Parachinar, Gilgit, Jhang, Kohat, Hangu, and other far-off places where the writ of the government is weak.

Concern about the rising strength of the Sipah in Jhang, its place of birth, has already been raised in Parliament. MNA Sheikh Waqqas Akram complained about the comeback of the Sipah there, in the context of its show of force against the Christians of Gojra in Toba Tek Singh.

In Sind, the followers of the Sipah have gone around forcing the shops to close. Trains have been stopped in the railway stations of the province and track damaged in a planned manner. Foreseeing the trouble, the administration in many districts has closed down schools for three days and the matriculation exam has been stopped in the middle.

In Karachi, the mobs were out with sticks in hand, breaking everything in sight, including a bus and a car which they later burned. There was heavy fighting and exchange of fire in Judia Bazaar and its adjoining markets in Karachi, pointing to the sensitive areas where the factions have already drawn their battle lines.

A Sipah lawyer-cleric was killed in the city a fortnight ago. Sipah workers took positions in two domes of the mosque in the area and opened fire on the streets. Karachi is home to the most powerful madrassas of the faith to which the Sipah belongs.

In faraway Gilgit where a majority Shia population makes the region vulnerable, sectarian clashes occurred in the aftermath of Hyderi’s death, the trouble-makers obviously assuming that the murder was committed by the other side. If the fire spreads, Gilgit will be the one place where most violence can be expected.

The Pakistan Ulema Council has condemned the killing of Allama Ali Sher Hyderi (former Sipah leader) and has announced three days of mourning across the country. It thinks that the murder is a “conspiracy” to restart the sectarian war that Pakistan has been going through in the recent past. Some TV channels also took up the conspiracy theory — usually implicating India — for reasons of self-defence in the days to come when violence at the national level is expected. However, it is wrong to assume that sectarian violence is at low ebb. It is there in Dera Ismail Khan and Parachinar and is clearly one-sided against the Shia.

A lot of research is available on Sipah Sahaba because it is the mother of all jihadi organisations fielded by the state of Pakistan as “non-state actors” against India. Living in civil society, these organisations have injected violence into the lives of ordinary citizens.

In the past, the Sipah targeted the Shia and killed them inside mosques and imambargahs and the country shook under the intensity of the sectarian hunger for death. But then, one by one, most of the leaders of the Sipah were killed, including the father of Allama Ali Sher Hyderi; most of the clerics supporting the Sipah have been done to death too. And both sides engaged in this terrible war blame the state of Pakistan and vow revenge against it.

With the spread of Taliban and al Qaeda into the interiors of Sind and Punjab and the Northern Area Pakistan has been burdened with more onerous tasks. These fanatic jihadis are now likely to target minority religious groups with aggressive vigour. They have also formed groups of dacoits and underworld mafia to trade in contraband and drug. The drug money provides them the sinews of their campaign against the minority faiths. Pakistan and the US are now required to plan out strategies to combat these new forces inside its backyards. It is more imperative for the US to ensure that the Christian population is well protected as it apparently wants root in Pakistan for longer period, as in Iraq and Afghanistan. With increased US presence sectarian violence is likely to increase and the combined forces of the jihadis and the sectarians is likely to disturb the security ambience in the region.

Plight of the Christian, Hindu and Sikh minority should engage attention of the global human rights agencies and minority protection orgs of the United Nations. Mere denouncement by certain religious congregations in India and the US is not enough. The Indian Christians and media particularly have greater responsibilities. They have been very vocal over certain Hindu aberrations in Gujarat and Orissa. The Hindutwa orgs are now obsessed with Jinnah. The SGPC is battling over turf control outside Punjab. When would they wake up to the realities of “Secular Jinnah’s” Pakistan abusing its religious minorities? They remained silent when hundreds of Hindus were uprooted in Sind last year. The SGPC looked idiotically to the imposition of Jizya on the Sikhs in Swat region. They may now consider drawing attention of the global Christian orgs, Indian religious orgs and the media orgs towards trampling of the rights of the religious minorities in Pakistan.

maloykrishnadhar.com