|
Terrorists attack Pakistani church service
Three young girls killed in Christmas night bombing
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (27.12.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (27.12.2002) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Two masked assailants attacked a small Pakistani Protestant chapel service in northern Punjab on Christmas night, killing three young girls and leaving 13 other children and their parents wounded.
Some 40 Christians were gathered for a special children's Christmas program on December 25 in the one-room Presbyterian chapel in Chianwali, a remote village about 40 miles northwest of Lahore. Around 8:30 p.m., attackers concealed in women's burqas suddenly burst through the door and threw a bag of explosives into the room.
The two youngest victims, six-year-old Najma Masih and ten-year-old Shumaila Masih, died on the spot, while 15-year-old Razia Masih died en route to the Sarah rural health center. An estimated 2,500 mourners gathered the following afternoon for the funeral and burial of the three girls in the village cemetery.
Nine of those wounded by the explosion and shattered glass were hospitalized at Gujranwala's district hospital. Punjab provincial officials announced that the cost of their medicines and treatment would be covered at government expense, along with promised compensation to families of the victims.
The four most critically injured survivors, three adults and a teenage girl, were transferred to Lahore for treatment at the Mayo and General Hospitals. All are in stable condition and expected to recover, a representative of the U.S. Consulate in Lahore who visited the four injured Christians told Compass today.
One woman among those hospitalized does not yet know that her daughter died in the attack, and one of the men wounded severely in the face is not expected to recover the use of an eye.
Despite heightened security measures ordered this week to protect Christmas celebrations in churches across predominantly Muslim Pakistan, no policeman was on duty at the Chianwali service. Three local police officers were suspended today by the deputy inspector general of police of Gujranwala for negligence in the incident. "That is the normal thing they do, you know, just to pacify people," a local source commented.
"Of course, there was no police guard that night," fumed a Christian clergyman, interviewed by telephone as he returned from the Chianwali funeral yesterday. "But of course now there is an entourage of police from all over the Punjab there, maybe 20 police vehicles!" he told Compass.
Initial media reports indicated the attackers had thrown a hand grenade into the one-room chapel, but senior police official Shahid Iqbal later told Reuters that pieces of metal or shrapnel had not been found in the church. "It was some kind of an explosive device," Iqbal said. After the explosion, "There was smoke and a strange smell, like that of chemicals," one eyewitness said.
Pakistani police promptly arrested a local Islamist cleric later that night, telling the media that Mohammed Afzal was "believed to have instigated the attack," although they had no evidence yet of his "direct involvement." In the First Information Report (FIR) filed in Satrah against Afzal, the fiery Muslim preacher was said to have made hateful remarks against Christians in a mosque sermon in Daska district, not far from the attacked church.
Afzal reportedly told his congregation that "it is the duty of every good Muslim to kill Christians," Daska police officer Nazir Yaqub told the Associated Press. "Afzal told people, 'You should attack Christians and not even have food until you have seen their dead bodies,'" Yaqub said.
According to local Christians interviewed by "The News" today, Afzal and his followers had attacked the Presbyterian chapel three months ago, throwing stones and threatening the congregation. Although Satrah police were notified of the incident, "they did nothing except giving a strict warning to Afzal and his accomplices," the sources said.
Another five arrests have been made, including Afzal's son Attaullah, who is alleged to have trained in an Afghan terrorist camp. All those detained are open supporters or alleged members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed), Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir. The violent group, which has ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, is now banned in Pakistan, where its founder has been under house arrest in Bahawalpur since December 2001.
Eyewitnesses quoted by "The Daily Times" today accused Afzal of harboring an Afghan-trained Jaish-e-Mohammed militant named Rashid, accused of being the "main culprit" in carrying out the Christmas night attack.
The December 25 bombing was the sixth terrorist attack against Christians in Pakistan in the past 15 months. A total of 42 Pakistanis have been killed and another 88 injured in the targeted attacks against Christian churches, schools and hospitals in Pakistan, in apparent retaliation for the Pakistan government's support of offensives by the "Christian West" against Afghanistan's former Taliban regime and the al-Qaeda movement.
Back to the Table of Contents
Bomb explodes near Pakistan church
by Abdul Sattar
AP (29.09.2002)/ HRWF (28.09.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - A small bomb exploded outside a remote village church Sunday, hours after thousands took to the streets in Pakistan's largest city demanding government protection of the country's minority Christian community.
The small, crude device was planted near a wall that surrounds a non-denominational church in the impoverished Sibi district of southwestern Baluchistan province, police officer Bashir Kohlo said. There were no casualties.
The explosion frightened the small Christian community living in the remote area about 100 miles east of Quetta, the provincial capital. Most of the 10 families living in the area are Christians, Kohlo said.
"People were panicked but fortunately no one was near the wall and no one was hurt," said Bashir Ahmad, another police officer. He said the church was closed at the time and sustained no damage from the explosion.
Pakistani Information Minister Nisar Memon said authorities did not know who was responsible for the bombing. Suspicion immediately fell on Islamic extremists, although he also suggested it could be the work of a "neighboring country" a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan's rival and neighbor India.
The attack came after a large-scale demonstration in the southern port city and commercial hub of Karachi by 10,000 Pakistanis who gathered at a memorial for seven Christian charity workers shot execution-style at their office on Wednesday. The killings at the Institute for Peace and Justice ended a lull in strikes on Christian and Western targets in Pakistan.
No arrests have been made in connection with that attack or Sunday's bombing.
The demonstrators, predominantly Christians, filled the streets around Karachi's main cathedral, calling for increased security for Christians and the arrest of the gunmen who massacred the seven.
Angry protesters some carrying crucifixes blocked roads with makeshift barricades and garbage and shouted demands for Pakistan's interior minister to resign for failing to bring a stop to the deadly attacks.
Many demonstrators wore T-shirts reading "We Want Justice," and carried black banners and crosses.
Eight men carried an oak coffin containing one of the victims to the St. Patrick's cathedral. The coffin was draped in the Pakistani flag and emblazoned with a cross.
"Martyrs, we are ashamed your killers are alive," demonstrators shouted outside the cathedral.
Wednesday's killings were the latest of several fatal attacks blamed on Islamic militants since President Pervez Musharraf joined the U.S. war on terror in neighboring Afghanistan and decided to crack down on extremists at home.
On Sunday, Christian leaders said they were being victimized by the fallout from those decisions.
"Christians are paying the price for the bombing in Afghanistan," said Michael Javed, a former Christian lawmaker.
At least 36 people have been killed and about 100 injured in several acts of violence against Christians and Westerners.
About 3.8 million Christians, accounting for 2.5 percent of the population, live in Pakistan, which is 96 percent Muslim. The country is also home to very small numbers of Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.
Back to the Table of Contents
Pakistan Christians protest killings
by Zarar Khan
AP (26.09.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (27.09.2002) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Shouting "stop religious terrorism," hundreds of Christians marched in Karachi Wednesday after two gunmen invaded the office of a Christian charity, tied up workers and shot seven of them to death, each with a bullet to the head.
The bloodbath in the southern port city shattered hopes that a sweeping crackdown on Islamic militants had quelled the violent groups targeting foreigners and Pakistan's Christian minority.
An eighth person was critically wounded in the attack on the third-floor office of the Institute for Peace and Justice, a Pakistani Christian charity. The victims, all Pakistani Christians, were bound to chairs with their hands behind their backs before being shot, Karachi Police Chief Kamal Shah said.
There was no claim of responsibility and Shah said it was not known who was behind the attack. Police were questioning an office assistant who was tied up and beaten but not shot.
It was the latest in a string of attacks on Christian organizations that have killed at least 36 people and wounded 100 since President Pervez Musharraf's decision to join the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and crack down on extremists at home.
It came a day after gunmen in the western province of Gujarat in neighboring India killed 32 people at a Hindu temple, raising new tensions between the hostile neighbors.
In Karachi, Pakistani authorities were trying to figure out how the gunmen got into the office, which had an electronic door that could only be opened from the inside, he said. The office assistant told police there were two gunmen, Shah said.
The building in a central business district of Karachi was cordoned off, and a female relative of one of the victims was led away sobbing by police. The mother of another victim, 36-year-old Benjamin Talib, collapsed and was taken to the hospital.
The Institute for Peace and Justice has operated in Karachi for 30 years, working with poor municipal and textile laborers to improve working conditions and organize programs with human rights groups.
Pakistan's 3.8 million Christians make up about 2.5 percent of the country's overwhelmingly Muslim population.
Information Minister Nisar Memon denounced the attackers as "enemies of Pakistan."
He said the violence would not shake the nation's resolve. "Pakistan's cooperation with the world community in the war against terrorism will continue," he said.
Many Pakistani Christians complained the government was failing to protect them and some took their outrage out on city officials.
"Shame! Shame! Shame!" a crowd of people shouted at Karachi Mayor Naimatullah Khan when he arrived at the hospital where the bodies were taken.
Later, 400 demonstrators, most of them Christian, marched on the Governor's House, shouting "stop religious terrorism" and demanding protection.
"People in our community now feel more insecure ... our people are being killed," said Bishop Victor Mall, head of the Diocese Church of Pakistan in Multan, an area in Punjab province that has spawned a number of militant Muslim groups.
Shehbaz Bhatti, a Christian who heads the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, blamed Islamic militants sympathetic to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and the hard-line Taliban regime ousted from neighboring Afghanistan.
He said Christians felt increasingly insecure in Pakistan. "Our anger is now reaching the boiling point," he said.
Mayor Khan appealed to all Muslims in Pakistan to work with Christians to promote peace. "Those trying to disturb the peace in Karachi are bent upon exploiting religious sentiments," he said.
In October last year six masked gunmen opened fire on congregants at a Protestant church service in the Punjab city of Behawalpur, killing 15 Christians and a Muslim guard.
On March 17, a grenade attack on a Protestant church in Islamabad's heavily guarded diplomatic quarter killed five people, including an American woman, her 17-year-old daughter and the lone assailant.
On Aug. 9, attackers hurled grenades at worshippers as they were leaving a church on the grounds of a Presbyterian hospital in Taxila, 25 miles west of the capital, Islamabad. Four nurses were killed and 25 people were wounded.
Four days earlier, assailants raided a Christian school 40 miles east of Islamabad, killing six Pakistanis.
But optimism had been growing that authorities were getting the upper hand.
This month, police in Karachi arrested 23 members of Harakat ul-Mujahedeen Al-Almi, a militant group suspected in the June bombing outside the U.S. Consulate as well as the suicide car bomb in May that killed 11 French engineers and abortive plots against a McDonald's and a KFC restaurant.
Police found maps of two churches and a Christian school in Karachi, along with weapons and explosives. That discovery prompted authorities to remove signs from outside some churches set up in private homes and to fortify other Christian sites with sandbag bunkers.
Back to the Table of Contents
Karachi gunmen murder Pakistani welfare workers
Seven Christians die in close-range 'executions'
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (25.09.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (26.09.2002) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net -- Armed gunmen attacked a Pakistani Christian welfare organization in Karachi this morning, then escaped after killing seven Christians and leaving an eighth critically injured.
According to local police, two unidentified attackers entered the third-floor offices of the Idare-e-Amn-O-Insaf, or Institute for Peace and Justice (IPJ), in central Karachi shortly after working hours began today. The assailants apparently gagged all the office staff and tied them to chairs before shooting eight of them point-blank in the head.
Six of the victims died on the spot, while a seventh died later in the hospital and an eighth is still fighting for his life. An additional office worker who was beaten and tied up was not shot, however, enabling him to wriggle free a half-hour later to summon the police.
A doctor working next-door to the unmarked IPJ offices at the time of the attack told Reuters news agency that he had seen two gunmen. "They were wearing shirts and trousers and were clean shaven," he said.
By late morning, hundreds of police had cordoned off the 12-story Rimpa Plaza building where the attack took place along Jinnah Road, in the southern port city's central business district.
Although today's shooting was Karachi's first attack against a Christian institution this year, suicide and car bomb attacks against Western targets there in May and June killed 11 foreigners and 16 Pakistanis.
Today's dead, all Christians on the IPJ staff, were identified as Aslam Martin, community coordinator; Mushtaq Roshan, accountant; Kamran Anjum, computer programmer; John Meneses, office boy; Iqbal Allah Rakha and Benjamin Talib, drivers; and Edwin Foster.
According to doctors at Karachi's main hospital, an eighth colleague, Robin Shareef, remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit. Doctors said the injured man needed surgery and faced permanent paralysis of the left side from his injuries.
Meanwhile, the ninth office worker has collapsed and is now under hospital sedation, Reuters reported. Karachi Police Chief Syed Kamal Shah said investigators were keen to question this uninjured survivor, who reportedly fainted shortly after police began interrogating him.
Local Christian sources told Compass that the sedated office worker, identified as Robin Peranditta, has been put under arrest as a possible suspect in the crime.
Founded in 1973, the IPJ has focused for three decades on obtaining labor rights for textile and city workers, along with representing other human rights issues for the poorest sectors of society. Jointly sponsored by Pakistan's Catholic and Protestant churches, the group has not been involved in religious politics.
According to police sources, however, a recent issue of the organization's magazine, "Jafakash" (Hard Worker), had dealt with Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws.
Today's attack has shattered recent claims by the Pakistan government that this month's massive crackdown had "smashed" the militant terrorist groups assaulting Christian and Western targets in the country.
Yesterday, Pakistan's Interior Ministry stepped up security safeguards around Christian sites after admitting that police had uncovered new evidence of future attacks planned against non-Muslim places of worship and foreign establishments.
Police investigators confirmed that militants of the Harakat ul-Mujahideen Al-Almi group recently arrested in Karachi with weapons and explosives had in their possession maps and plans for at least two churches and a Christian school. Entry and exit points for the institutions' facilities, all located in central Karachi, were marked on the maps, police said.
In Karachi and a number of other cities, local police had removed signs identifying churches meeting in private homes and began fortifying other Christian institutions with sandbag bunkers. "We are removing the signs for their own safety," a police officer in Rawalpindi told the Associated Press.
Today's shooting was the fifth deadly assault on Christians in Pakistan since last October, when militant Islamist groups vowed to retaliate against President Pervaiz Musharraf's decision to support the U.S. war on terrorism. The toll from the string of anti-Christian attacks now comes to 39 killed and 75 injured.
Fifteen Christian worshippers and a policeman were massacred during an October 2001 worship service in Bahawalpur, with five more killed in a March grenade attack at the Islamabad Protestant Church. Another 11 died in separate attacks in early August against the Murree Christian School and the Taxila Christian Hospital, both in the northern Punjab near Islamabad.
Back to the Table of Contents
Pakistan's Christians told 'to protect themselves'
Congregations Urged to Pray Under Armed Guard
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (09.09.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (10.09.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - In the wake of two more deadly terrorist attacks against Christian institutions in Pakistan in early August, government security officials have advised local church leaders to arm themselves for possible assaults by Muslim extremists.
"It's their way of saying, 'We cannot protect you. You will have to protect yourselves.'" one Christian leader told Compass last week.
In a carefully planned set of assaults, armed Islamic militants shot six people dead on August 5 at Murree Christian School for missionary children. Just four days later, another handful of extremists hurled grenades at the chapel of Taxila Christian Hospital, killing five more and wounding another 26. All the victims were Pakistani citizens.
The deadly raids were the most recent of four deliberate attacks on Christian targets in Pakistan since President Pervez Musharraf swung his support behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism after September 11, 2001. Previous grenade blasts during worship services had taken the lives of 21and left dozens more crippled in churches in Bahawalpur last October and Islamabad in March.
Concentrated in the Punjab province, Christians make up less than five percent of Pakistan's 145 million people. Local church leaders believe their congregations have been targeted over the past year by radical Islamist movements who associate Christians with the West both politically and militarily.
After the latest Murree and Taxila attacks, the Islamabad government ordered token security protection by local police and army staff for Christian churches across the country during their regular worship services.
In Lahore, the superintendent of police told daily newspapers that due to insufficient manpower he could only delegate one, two or at the most three police guards to protect all the city's 164 churches at their Sunday services.
"But this only went on for about two weeks," one church leader said. "Then the security called us in and said the rest was up to us." Each parish was urged to get gun licenses, hire and train guards, and instruct its congregation and staff on how to respond in case of attack.
Security officials also called in administrators of the hundreds of Christian schools, hospitals and other institutions run by the Christian community across the nation, explaining that it was "impossible" for the government to protect them all.
"They are almost forcing us to go and buy guns," a clergyman commented. "Before, it was very difficult for a Christian to even get a gun license, but now every church can get up to four." Some congregations cannot afford weapons, however, and many object in principle to arming themselves in a place dedicated to worship and Christian service.
"I still do not feel completely at ease while worshipping under the supervision of the police," Bishop Samuel Azariah of the Church of Pakistan's Raiwand Diocese told the "Daily Times" newspaper on August 14. "Psychologically it makes one feel like a convict," he said.
"It doesn't feel good at all," agreed another clergyman. "And because our diocese is in financial straits, we are not even able to buy guns for our gatekeepers," he told Compass. "They are very frightened."
"The fact that we are praying to God under the shadow of guns is very disheartening for me," one woman parishioner admitted. "I am a Pakistani, [so] I should not feel insecure within my country."
"I am not moving about much now," commented one bishop based in a city known for its Islamic fanaticism. "And when I do, I borrow a vehicle because everybody knows my car here."
Inevitably, Bishop Azariah said, the situation has created a "siege" mindset within the Christian community. Some Christian institutions in more remote areas have had to resort to sandbagging their premises and hiring several more watchmen.
"Sundays are bad for us," another clergyman sighed. "Pray for us, that our people will get their confidence back, and not be afraid to come to church."
Back to the Table of Contents
Pakistan's supreme court orders release of Christian facing death sentence in blasphemy case
by Munir Ahmad
AP (15.08.2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (15.08.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered authorities Thursday to immediately release a Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy in 1998, the state-run news agency said.
Defense attorney Abid Minto told the court Thursday that his client, Ayub Masih, had never made the allegedly blasphemous statements, but instead was a victim of a plot to steal his land, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. The court agreed and ordered Masih released.
Masih was arrested in Punjab province in 1996 after a neighbor complained that Masih made statements supporting British writer Salman Rushdie, who was condemned to death by Iranian leaders because his novel "The Satanic Verses" was considered blasphemous to Islam.
Masih was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to death, a decision that sparked nationwide protests by minority Christian groups and human rights organizations. Nevertheless, lower appeals courts upheld the conviction.
Minto produced evidence that the accuser had used the conviction to force Masih's family off of their land and then acquired the deed to it through a housing program, the agency reported.
Under Pakistani Islamic law, only the word of a Muslim accuser is needed to prosecute a non-Muslim on blasphemy charges, which can carry the death penalty upon conviction.
About 97 percent of Pakistan's 145 million people are Muslim. Christians constitute a small portion of the remaining 3 percent, though Christian leaders insist that they are at least six percent of the total population.
Back to the Table of Contents
Three Christian nurses die in an apparent grenade attack
Reuters (09.08.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (10.09.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Four people, including three nurses from a Christian missionary hospital, died in Pakistan today in an apparent grenade attack, and up to 20 people were wounded, hospital and police officials said. It was the latest assault on Western interests in less than a week.
''The nurses were coming out of the chapel when someone threw explosives,'' said Clement Bakhshi, an accounts officer at the hospital in Taxila, about 12 miles west of the capital, Islamabad.
''Three of our nurses have expired and up to 20 people have been injured, most of them nurses.''
A police source in Taxila said one of the attackers had apparently blown himself up in a suicide attack.
''One was killed and two fled, and the explosives were tied to the body of the one who died,'' he told Reuters.
The incident came just four days after six Pakistanis were shot dead in a gun attack on a Christian missionary school for foreign students in the resort town of Murree.
On Monday, gunmen burst through the gates of the Murree Christian School about 30 miles northeast of Islamabad, killing six people, all Pakistanis.
Police said later in the week that three men responsible for the attack blew themselves up with grenades after escaping from a police checkpoint.
Pakistani officials said the raid on the school appeared to be aimed at the foreign community rather than at a minority faith in Muslim-majority Pakistan.
In March, five people including the wife and daughter of an American diplomat died in a grenade attack on a church in Islamabad.
Last October, 16 Christians and one Muslim were massacred in a church in Bahawalpur in populous Punjab province.
Pakistani police said on Wednesday they had evidence that three men who blew themselves up on Tuesday in Kashmir were the same gang that killed six people in an attack on a Christian school this week.
The trio were challenged by police when they tried to enter the village of Khabadar in Pakistani Kashmir about 12 miles from the scene of Monday's attack, police said on Tuesday.
Police freed the suspects after they threatened to explode a grenade. Then the three men walked to a nearby river where they blew themselves up.
''We have overwhelming evidence that they are involved in the [church school] attack,'' Deputy Inspector General of Police Israr Ahmad told Reuters from Murree, the hill town northeast of Islamabad that was the scene of the school shootings.
Back to the Table of Contents
Pakistan sentences Christian to death
Mentally unstable man ruled guilty of blasphemy
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass Direct (19.07.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (22.07.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - A Pakistani Christian with a history of mental problems was given the death sentence yesterday for alleged blasphemy that "hurt the feelings of Muslims, Christians and Jews," a Lahore court declared.
Anwar Kenneth, 45, was ordered executed by hanging and assessed a fine of 500,000 rupees ($8,335) by Lahore Additional Sessions Court Justice Sadaqat Ullah Khan. The judge declared that "apart from his objectionable remarks on Islam," the defendant had also "antagonized the Christians and Jews" by his claims to be Jesus Christ and the king of the Jews.
In hundreds of letters, which criticized Islam and the prophet Mohammed, Kenneth reportedly claimed to be Jesus Christ and urged his readers to convert to Christianity.
According to the First Information Report (FIR) filed against Kenneth on September 25, 2001, the defendant had written to 608 political and religious leaders, including foreign diplomats in Pakistan, several heads of state, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and local Muslim leaders.
A former assistant director of the Fisheries Department in Lahore, Kenneth was formally accused of blasphemy by Haji Mahmood Zafar, a leader of the Anjuman Ashait-e-Islam movement who received one of Kenneth's letters.
After his conviction yesterday, Kenneth said he would not file any appeal against his conviction, declaring his firm belief that he could not die, "even if he were thrown into fire," the Lahore-based "Daily Times" reported. Kenneth had pleaded guilty to the charges filed against him under Section 295-C of Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws and refused any legal defense on the case.
Although the laws of Pakistan require that a mentally disabled defendant be certified by a board of medical doctors as competent to stand trial, a lawyer representing Lahore's Christian Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) office confirmed that Kenneth had not been given any medical examination since his arrest. Before announcing the verdict yesterday, the court dismissed an application requesting that the defendant's psychiatric condition be examined and reported to the court.
Jailed without bail since his arrest 10 months ago, Kenneth had confessed to the charges when presented before the court on July 8, the Associated Press reported.
Earlier this month, a Pakistani Muslim with established mental problems was beaten to death by a group of Punjabi villagers for alleged blasphemy against Islam. The leader of the local mosque reportedly incited the killing of Zahid Shah on July 5 in a village near Faisalabad. Although once jailed on charges of making derogatory statements against Mohammed, Shah had been acquitted five years ago on grounds of insanity.
Two other Christians sentenced to death on blasphemy charges are already on death row in Pakistan, waiting for their appeals to be heard before higher courts. Another eight Christians remain jailed without bail, either still on trial or appealing life sentences.
Pakistan's non-Muslim minorities have long demanded repeal of the controversial blasphemy laws, which have targeted hundreds of their number for arrest and prosecution on false charges over the past 16 years.
Back to the Table of Contents
Religious schools upset in Pakistan
by Massoud Ansari
AP (06.07.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (10.07.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Islamic clerics, representing thousands of religious schools in Pakistan, threatened Saturday to launch nationwide demonstrations to protest new laws that would regulate their finances, the enrollment of overseas students and prevent the teaching of Islamic extremism.
After attending a meeting with top government officials to discuss the new rules, the heads of religious schools gave the government two weeks to withdraw the new regulations or face the protests.
In a statement issued after the meeting, Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat, an alliance of organizations representing most of some 8,000 religious schools, said it would organize street demonstrations if the new regulations were not abandoned.
"We neither give training in militancy to anyone nor collect donations in the name of Jihad (holy war)," the statement said. "Our sole aim is to prepare Islamic scholars."
Yet they refused to identify the sources of their funding, a key demand by the government.
Some of Pakistan's madrassas are considered key training grounds of Islamic militancy. Some produced Muslim scholars who later became central figures in the Taliban movement in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan's military government announced new laws which would have madrassas register with the government, introduce subjects like math, science, English and other skills in their syllabus, seek government permission before admitting foreign students and to disclose their funding sources.
Government officials have also said extremism would not be taught in the schools but have not explained how they define the term.
Clerics who defy the new ordinance face penalties of up to 2 years in prison.
The plan has outraged many religious leaders, who say government interference in the madrassas is illegal and against the spirit of Islam.
Madrassas operate with no state supervision and in many schools learning focusses more on rote memorization of Arabic religious texts than social sciences and other subjects.
Religious Affairs Minister Ghazi Mahmood Ahmed hosted Saturday's meeting and conceded afterward that no agreement had been reached. He said another meeting would be held within two weeks.
An official who attended the meeting said, on condition of anonymity, that the clerics were told that the government would not back down on the regulations.
Sajid Mir, the head of an organization which represents hundreds of madrassas, said clerics would never let the government direct what is taught in madrassas.
"We would definitely resist if the government forced (through) this ordinance," Sajid told reporters. He refused to elaborate.
The government is particularly concerned about thousands of foreigners studying at the madrassas without any official registration. The clerics were told that these students were a threat to Pakistan's security, the official said.
A survey by the Interior Ministry recently counted almost 18,000 foreigners among the more than 600,000 students in madrassas across Pakistan.
The regulations dovetail with a slate of anti-terrorism policies pushed in recent months by President Pervez Musharraf, the United States' main ally in anti-terrorism efforts in this region.
Musharraf has promised both the United States and his rival, India, that he will act to prevent militants from sowing chaos in disputed Kashmir to the east, Afghanistan to the west and in Pakistan itself.
Musharraf says his moves against militants are for the good of Pakistan. Conservative Islamic groups say he has sold out to the West to keep power.
In October, madrassas served as bases for the waves of anti-American and anti-Musharraf protests that swept Pakistan.
In recent months, some Pakistani madrassas have been suspected of offering haven to members of al-Qaida, the terrorist network suspected of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Back to the Table of Contents
Muslim cleric convicted of blasphemy shot dead in a Pakistan prison
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (13.06.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (17.06.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - A 55-year-old Muslim cleric convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan has been shot dead in jail in Lahore.
Mohammed Yousaf Ali was being transferred from Cell Block 7 to Cell Block 1 in the Kot Lakhpat Central Jail when he was shot at close range on June 11.
The murderer is alleged to be another prisoner in the jail, Tariq Mota, a member of Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP), a banned Sunni militant group believed to have close links to the Al Qaeda network.
He is reported to have shot Yousaf with a .30 calibre pistol before kneeling down to give thanks to Allah.
Mota is said to have boasted in a statement to police: "I now feel spiritually satisfied because it was my wish to kill him. It is the responsibility of every Muslim to kill these infidels."
Yousaf Ali, 55, was sentenced to death for blasphemy on August 5, 2000, in a case brought by the Tharik-I-Khatmi Nabuwat, an Islamic militant group in Lahore.
Yousaf was a cleric in a Lahore mosque and had been vocal in condemning religious extremism.
At every stage of the judicial process, students from nearby madrassahs (Islamic religious schools) and members of militant Islamic organisations packed the courthouse, shouting religious slogans and demanding his death.
It is widely believed that Islamic militant groups are behind his death.
Factors such as the non-routine transfer between cells and that the alleged murderer was waiting for Yousaf with a gun, point to the complicity of prison staff in his murder.
The jail superintendent resigned a few hours after the murder and later, the jail's assistant superintendent and two wardens were arrested on charges of negligence.
At least four Christians charged with blasphemy have been killed at the hands of extremists and at least another three have been shot at.
Baba Bantu Masih was stabbed to death by a young Muslim while in a Lahore police station in 1992.
In a case still under investigation, a post-mortem revealed that Tahir Iqbal, a convert from Islam to Christianity, was allegedly poisoned while in the same prison as Yousaf in 1992.
Nehmat Ahmer, a Christian teacher from Faisalabad, was knifed to death in 1992 by a young Muslim fanatic.
Manzoor Masih, Rehmat and Salamat Masih were also shot at outside Lahore High Court in 1995. Manzoor Masih was killed on the spot.
In November 1997 Ayub Masih was shot at by the complainant in his case outside the Sahiwal Sessions Court.
Ayub Masih is currently appealing to Pakistan's Supreme Court to have his death sentence quashed. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has concluded that his detention was arbitrary and that the threats and atmosphere surrounding his trial and appeal denied him any chance of a fair trial.
Yousaf Ali's death demonstrates that despite President Musharraf's recent initiatives to curb Islamic extremists in Pakistan, they are still a powerful force who seem to be able to act with impunity.
The Christian community in Pakistan fears that prisoners held on blasphemy and other religious charges could suffer the same fate as Yousaf.
In the year 2001 alone, it is estimated that at least 40 Muslims, 23 Ahmadi, ten Christians and two Hindus have been charged with blasphemy.
CSW condemns the assassination of Yousaf Ali and calls again for President Musharraf to prioritise the complete disarming of all militant Islamic groups.
CSW also calls on President Musharraf to heighten security precautions for all faith minorities currently in detention in Pakistan.
Stuart Windsor, National Director of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said: "Our prayers and sympathies go out to Yousaf Ali's friends and family at this difficult time.
"His death seems to have been at the hand of an extremist backed by militant groups. If this was the case it shows just how much freedom these groups have to strike even at those who are under the eyes of the authorities in prison.
"We call on President Musharraf to identify and purge extremist elements from within the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, the judiciary, the security forces and civil services and to bring to justice those behind such acts of murder and incitement to religious hatred."
For more information, please contact Richard Chilvers at CSW on 020 8949 0587 or 020 8942 8810 or email richard.chilvers@csw.org.uk
Back to the Table of Contents
Call for tighter security for Christians in Pakistan after attack on Pakistan church by youths with machine guns"
Csmonitor.com (07.04.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (18.04.2002)CWebsite http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - A Presbyterian church close to the Kashmir border was attacked by a group of Islamic extremists on Sunday April 7.
Seven youths, aged between 14 and 25, armed with automatic weapons, stormed the church in Satrah village near Gujranwala district. They broke up the evening service, verbally abused the congregation and fired randomly into the air.
When the church minister called for help through the church loudspeakers, the attackers fled the scene. Although no one was injured, the three hundred Christian families living in the area were terrified.
Gujranwala district is renowned for being a breeding ground for religious extremism. Islamic militant groups such as the Lakshar-I-Taiba, Jash-I-Mohammad, Harkat-ul- Mujahideen and Muslim fighters are active in the region. Many Muslim youths from the area have joined the Taliban for the 'Jihad' in Afghanistan.
According to an eye-witness, three of the youths were members of local Islamic militant groups and had received training in Afghanistan.
Despite repeated requests from the Christian community, the local police and the Senior Superintendent were reluctant to file a first incident report. The local authorities also reportedly offered little sympathy.
Local Christians believe the attack is a further gesture of retaliation by Islamists to President Musharraf's decisions to side with the US against the Taliban regime and to confront extremism inside the country.
Several months ago, a local Muslim fighter group demanded that the Presbyterian minister close his church and threatened to attack it if he continued to conduct services.
This is the second serious attack on Christian churches in under a month, and the third this year. Three weeks ago, Pakistan hit international headlines when Islamic extremists hurled grenades into a protestant church in the diplomatic area in Islamabad, killing five people and injuring over 40 others.
Recently, President Musharraf has taken groundbreaking steps to arrest extremists, ban militant groups and regulate the madrassahs (religious schools), but violence has continued.
The growing number of Pakistanis joining the Taliban forces has exacerbated the military government's dilemma
Various Islamic groups and elements within the military are criticising the President for limiting the power of those actively involved in Kashmir and thereby abandoning his claim to the region. Extremists have vowed to depose the military leader, describing him as a 'threat to national security'.
Meanwhile, the minority faith communities remain concerned that they would bear the brunt of extremist aggression and that fundamentalists would use the US-Afghan conflict as a pretext to step up their attacks. Pakistan Christians remain fully alert and closely monitor the situation as events unfold.
CSW is calling on the Government of Pakistan to bring to justice those responsible for carrying out and inciting this and all previous attacks on churches and to augment security provisions for the Christian minority.
Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW, said: "We are profoundly disturbed by this series of attacks on Christian churches. It is appalling that, despite the President's repeated assurances to protect the Christian community, the local authorities are still reluctant to take up their cases.
"Driven by an intense desire to Islamise Pakistan, Islamic militant groups have become one of the most divisive forces in the country. For Pakistan to move towards progressive Islam, President Musharraf must take concrete steps to oversee the complete disarming of these militant groups and bring to justice all those who incite sectarian and religious violence."
Back to the Table of Contents
Gunmen shoot dead 10 at Shiite Muslim mosque
in Pakistan
AFP (26.02.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (28.02.2002)CWebsite http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - Gunmen killed at least 10 people when they attacked a Shiite Muslim mosque in the northern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi in the first major sectarianattack since a nationwide crackdown on extremism was launched last month.
Three men armed with automatic weapons drove on motorcycles to the Shah-Najaf mosque about 7:00 pm (1400 GMT) before two went inside, bolted the door and fired indiscriminately at about 28 worshippers, police said.
"I heard gun shots and fell down. When I turned back, I saw two young boys, one (was) loading a gun magazine while the other was firing at namazis (worshippers)," one of the survivors told the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.
City police chief Marwat Ali Shah told AFP 10 people were killed in the attack and about a dozen others were injured. He said the gunmen escaped.
Shah said police had cordoned off all entrances to Rawalpindi, the twin city
of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. President Pervez Musharraf expressed "profound shock and grief" at the attack and offered his condolences to the families of the victims. He ordered federal and provincial police to investigate and vowed to hunt down the attackers.
"Those responsible would be unearthed and given exemplary punishment," he said.
Such acts would only renew the resolve of the government and the people of Pakistan in rooting out extremists, he said.
Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani called it "a very reprehensible attack".
"This clearly appears to be a sectarian attack. It (sectarianism) has been curbed in the past, but to expect that everything will fall in line is expecting too much," Noorani told AFP.
"But we are determined to wipe out this terrorism from Pakistan and will continue to make our best efforts.
"This government will do whatever needs to be done to prevent such attacks and bring the culprits to justice."
More than 2,000 people have been killed over the past decade in sectarian violence in Sunni Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Shiites make up about 20 percent of the nation's population.
Hundreds of people converged at the mosque after the shooting, looking at the ghastly scene quietly and without incident.
The mosque was splattered with blood and worshippers' skullcaps littered the floor.
Bullet impacts were seen on the walls and the floor, with the bullets' casings lying on the floor.
It was the first communal attack since Musharraf announced on January 12 a crackdown on Islamic extremism and sectarianism.
In his announcement, Musharraf banned the Sunni extremist group Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan and its Shiite counterpart, Tehreek-i-Jafria Pakistan.
Both groups are accused of fomenting violence between the country's two major religious sects.
"Sectarian terrorism has been going on for years. Every one of us is fed up of it. It is becoming unbearable," Musharraf said in his speech.
"The day of reckoning has come. Do we want Pakistan to become a theocratic state? Do we believe that religious education alone is enough for governance or do we want Pakistan to emerge as a progressive and dynamic Islamic welfare state?
"The verdict of the masses is in favour of a progressive Islamic state."
After the attack, a grieving father who lost one son demanded the attackers
be brought to justice but criticized the government for not doing enough to crack down on extremists.
"I want justice. We want to be peaceful but our patience is running out. This is our limit," Gulzar Ahmed Kazmi, 59, told AFP at the Holy Family hospital.
The government has failed to protect us. The terrorist groups, Sipah-i-Sahaba and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, have been killing us for many years now."
Kazmi's 22-year-old son, Kamran, died in the shooting while another son, Imran, 25, was critically wounded.
Back to the Table of Contents
Christian faces death for blasphemy
Granted unprecedented final hearing before Pakistan Supreme Court
by Art Moore
World Religion News (15.02.2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (18.02.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - A Christian sentenced to hang for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad as been granted one final hearing before the Pakistan Supreme Court, according to the Compass Direct news service.
Ayub Masih, 34, was convicted on the testimony of a Muslim who claimed that during a private conversation his Christian neighbor slandered Muhammad by praising Salman Rushdie's book "The Satanic Verses."
His case is the first under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law to reach the Supreme Court. Masih was jailed in October 1996 and kept in solitary confinement on death row for nearly four years in Multan's New Central Jail.
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Masih's appeal must be heard due to apparent irregularities in his prosecution. The hearing should be held within the next two or three months, said Masih's defense lawyer, Abid Hassan Minto.
The ruling came as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf arrived in Washington to discuss his country's alliance with the U.S. in the war on terror.
Minto, a prominent Muslim human-rights lawyer, said he believes the Supreme Court will acquit his client.
Masih's death sentence in April 1998 provoked the suicide protest of Catholic Bishop John Joseph of Faisalbad. The bishop shot himself May 6, 1998, on the steps of the Sahiwal courthouse where Masih was convicted. Pakistani Christians interpreted Joseph's death as a protest against the blasphemy law, which can be abused, they argue, because of its vague wording.
Section 295-C of Pakistan's penal code says: "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad ... shall be punished with death and shall also be liable to a fine."
Although no Christians are known to have been executed under the blasphemy law, some have died while in custody and many remain in detention, according to Pakistani human-rights groups. Muslims also have been prosecuted under the law.
In May 2000, two Christian brothers were sentenced to 35 years in prison for blaspheming Muhammad. An ice cream vendor had accused the men of making "bad remarks" against Islam and Muhammad after he refused to serve them with bowls used by Muslims. Shortly after their sentencing, Musharraf retracted a promise to minorities to reform the law. Human-rights groups accused the regime of submitting to pressure from conservative Muslim clerics.
Musharraf had promised to promote changes that would help avoid false accusations, but some Islamic organizations threatened to hold demonstrations.
A U.S. congressman who traveled with a delegation to Pakistan in January, Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., said Musharraf still insists he wants to reform the law.
"President Musharraf assured me that no one would hang because they were convicted under this law while he was president," Pitts said in an interview with the World Evangelical Alliance's Religious Liberty Conference. "He said they were trying to institute some reform in their court system so that the registered cases that are without foundation and totally false would not be going through their legal system."
Pitts acknowledged that "Musharraf does have some damage control to do" with Islamic extremists. "But I think that he feels that he has the moral high ground in instituting his reforms," Pitts said. "This law is certainly one of the things he wants to reform in due time."
Back to the Table of Contents
Reform of Electoral System Pleases Christians - Religious Minorities Were Politically Marginalized
LAHORE, Pakistan, JAN. 18, 2002 (ZENIT.org-Fides)./HRWF (23.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C E-mail info@hrwf.net - Pakistan has gone back to a joint electorate system that will could mark the end of a procedure that discriminated against non-Muslims.
Minorities throughout the country welcomed the government's decision to abolish the separate electorate system, which marginalized Christians and other minorities. The decision will be applied starting in the elections next October.
In fact, the Musharraf government has only restored a system used up to 1973. The decision was made public Wednesday by the chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau.
Other measures include increase in the number of seats of Parliament up to 350, reserving 60 seats for women and 25 for technocrats. National Assembly candidates are required to have bachelor's degrees.
Among Pakistani Catholics there is great satisfaction. Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore, head of the bishops' Commission for Justice and Peace, said in a statement that the "decision will reinforce the country's democracy."
Peter Jakob, secretary of the same commission, told the Vatican agency Fides: "This is a major step toward liberating Pakistan from prejudices and retrogression. Without this unjust mode of electorate, based on religious apartheid, society in Pakistan gains new life and the nation will emerge with dignity and progress."
Yasoob Ali Gogar, coordinator and Lahore provincial adviser to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, said: "The separate electorate system was the root cause of the problems for minorities." Ali Dogar is also a member of the Minorities Advisory Council of Lahore, which includes Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Bahais and Parses.
Majority circles also welcomed the decision. Observers say the change will boost the country's image, ruined by recent episodes of Muslim fundamentalism.
The decision is part of a plan to put an end to intolerance in society and bring about social harmony. The plan includes a reform of the Koran schools that produced the Taliban, with the introduction of English, mathematics and computer studies.
Pakistani Christians had long protested the unfair electorate system, now abolished. In 2001 numerous protests were organized by civil society organizations. In 2000-2001 a campaign was launched and succeeded in boycotting the elections.
The first three general elections in Pakistan, 1954, 1970 and 1977, were held under joint electorate, but General Zia-ul-Haq brought in the separate electorate system in the 1985 elections for his vested interests.
Pakistan's population of 140 million is 97% Muslim and 1.6% Christian.
Back to the Table of Contents
Religious extremists arrested
AFP (January 15, 2002)/ HRWF (16.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C E-mail info@hrwf.net CPakistani police arrested about 200 religious extremists yesterday, taking the total number of detentions to 1,141 under a crackdown against five groups banned by the President, General Pervez Musharraf, officials said.
The arrests began even before the announcement of the crackdown by General Musharraf in a landmark address to the nation on Saturday, with police moving against extremist groups in all four provinces of the country.
"Police have arrested 1,141 militants and sealed 390 offices of the banned parties across the country," Interior Secretary Mr Tasneem Noorani said yesterday.
Mr Noorani said the crackdown would continue. "They have been detained on suspicion that they could indulge in activities threatening public peace and obstructing implementation of the orders," he said.
Police said hundreds of religious activists were taken into custody on Sunday as the crackdown continued for a second day, mainly in the eastern province of Punjab bordering India.
Two of the banned groups - the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad - are among the most hardline Islamic groups fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir.
New Delhi accuses them of orchestrating a surprise attack on the Indian Parliament last month which left 14 people dead and sparked a massive troop build-up on both sides of the India-Pakistan border.
The other three banned groups include two sectarian extremist organisations and a radical Islamic party opposed to Pakistan's alignment with the United States-led war against Afghanistan's Taliban and terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.
The Indian Government has demanded the extradition of 20 Pakistan-based militants as well as the closure of training camps and arms supply routes.
Meanwhile, two soldiers shot and killed each other following an argument and a scuffle near the India-Pakistan border in the northern Indian State of Jammu-Kashmir, police said yesterday.
Four other soldiers were injured when the two soldiers got into an argument and began firing indiscriminately at each other at Khanetar in the Punch district.
(AFP, January 15, 2002)
Back to the Table ofContents
Pakistani Cleric Warns of Islamic Revolution
By Zeeshan Haider
Reuters (Jan. 14, 2002) / HRWF (16.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C E-mail info@hrwf.net- ISLAMABAD, Pakistan C A prominent Pakistani Muslim cleric said Monday President Pervez Musharraf's sweeping crackdown on religious extremism was sowing the seeds of Islamic revolution.
Maulana Abdul Aziz, imam of Islamabad's main Red Mosque, said while there had been no immediate backlash to Musharraf's crackdown, announced on a Saturday, a reaction was brewing.
"This government is paving the way for Islamic revolution by creating hurdles for the Islamic parties", Aziz told Reuters in an interview at his home next to the Red Mosque.
"There may not be instant reaction but they will respond once dust is settled", the fiery preacher said of Musharraf's decision to ban five militant Muslim groups, including two fighting Indian forces in its part of disputed Kashmir
"We are just watching the situation but the silence will not last for long", Aziz said, adding he believed Musharraf launched his crackdown because of U.S. pressure.
"The timing of this announcement by the president has raised suspicion in the minds of religious people. It is being done under U.S. pressure", he said. Musharraf also imposed restrictions on Islamic schools, or madrassas, which have long been seen as a breeding ground for militancy. New madrassas can not be built without permission and all of them have to register and be brought into the mainstream education system.
He imposed restrictions on mosques and denounced religious scholars who he said preached sectarian hatred and violence.
Aziz, who opposed Musharraf's decision to abandon support for Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers and support the U.S.-led war on terrorism, dismissed the government's justification.
"If they were terrorists groups, then why were they allowed to operate for such a long time?" he asked, adding the move would weaken the separatist movement in Indian-ruled Kashmir.
"We have lost Afghanistan and it seems we are now losing Kashmir", he said of the banning of the two Kashmiri militant groups blamed for the December 13 attack on the Indian parliament. This will affect the freedom movement in Kashmir."
Musharraf's crackdown followed a big buildup of Indian forces on Pakistan's border in the wake of the parliament attack, which India blamed on the two Kashmiri groups banned on the weekend.
The United States had called on Pakistan to get tough with militants to help defuse the standoff with nuclear rival India.
A good decision
A teacher at a madrassa in Islamabad said he had no problems with the new restrictions.
"It is a good decision by the government that madrassas will not be opened without permission. We fully support it", teacher Kaleem Mortaza told Reuters at his school.
Mortaza said he would register his madrassa with the government. As he spoke his students in a nearby classroom were reciting verses of the Muslim holy book, the Koran.
One new student, the eight-year-old son of a shoe-shiner said he did hot know why his parents took him out of a state school and sent him to the madrassa last week.
But Mortaza had an answer. "The parents send their children here to serve Islam and the holy Koran. They join our mission to propagate the teachings of Koran throughout the world", he says.
"I have memorized the Koran in two years. Now I am teaching these children to memorize Koran and after graduation from here they will open more madrassas to do the same", he said.
The number of madrassas mushroomed during the 11-year military rule of President Zia-ul-Haq when front-line state Pakistan became embroiled in the U.S.-backed war against the Soviet 1979-89 occupation of Afghanistan. Madrassas, mainly in Northwest Frontier Province and western Baluchistan provinces, produced numerous recruits for Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban movement which erupted on to the scene in 1994 and took power two years later.
(Reuters, Jan. 14, 2002)
Back to the Table of Contents |
