Violence against minorities ‘common in Pakistan’

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is one of 13 countries named by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom as a place where violence against religious minorities is common and condoned or supported by the government.

Some of the documented violence includes rape victims being charged and jailed for adultery, women being murdered for refusing to quit their jobs, and the public beheading of critics of the Taliban and other terrorist extremists.

The year 2009 ‘has seen the largely unchecked growth in the power and reach of religiously-motivated extremist groups whose members are engaged in violence in Pakistan and abroad, with Pakistani authorities ceding effective control to armed insurgents espousing a radical Islam ideology’, the Annual Report 2009 of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom stated.

The report said Pakistan was one of 13 ‘countries of particular concern’ (CPC) because of ongoing religiously motivated violence that targets minorities.

‘Since 2002, our commission has recommended that Pakistan be named a CPC in light of a whole range of serious religious freedom concerns,’ said Elizabeth Prodromou, vice-chairwoman of the commission.

‘The State Department, however, has not followed the recommendation of the commission,’ added Ms Prodromou, who is also assistant professor in the Department of International Relations at Boston University.

‘Today, the threat to religious freedom or belief in Pakistan has measurably and demonstrably increased,’ she said, ‘and therefore we renew our recommendation that Pakistan be named a PCP’.

Ms Prodromou claimed the Pakistani government had aided and abetted terrorist extremists who targeted religious minorities.

‘Pakistan’s central government in Islamabad has succeeded effective control of more and more of the country to these Taliban-associated extremist groups,’ she said.

‘Pakistanis have repeatedly been murdered while engaging in religious worship,’ she said. ‘The government does not provide adequate protection to members of religious minorities and perpetrators of violence against those communities are seldom brought to justice.’

Ms Prodromou also claimed that the Pakistani police and justice system contribute to religiously motivated violence, with the Hudood Ordinances resulting in the amputations and deaths by stoning for violation of Islamic laws.

The commission recommended decriminalising blasphemy and rescinding laws that outlaw certain religious practices.