Minorities in Pakistan: Living in fear

By Shahzad Raza

Mehrabad is a sprawling village of haphazard dwellings and a diverse population not too far from the affluent sectors of the federal capital Islamabad. Most of the people living below poverty line in Islamabad's slums are Christians by faith. Many of them are garbage pickers or sweepers, or do other menial jobs. They are often humiliated and looked down upon. In August, a Christian girl from the village was accused of desecrating the Holy Quran by burning pages from the Noorani Qaida. "There is no way Rimsha could have done it deliberately, or someone else from among the local Christians could have asked her to do so," said a local police official. The 11-year-old girl suffering from Down's syndrome has been in Adiala Jail since August 17. Officials say she has been locked up to guarantee her safety, because emotionally charged fanatics are out to kill her. Mehrabad is a 10-minute drive from Kohsar Market, where late Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer was killed by his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri in January 2011 after he had called for a fair trial of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy. It is also a 10-minute drive from the neighbourhood in which Minority Affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti was gunned down two months later. The two incidents shook the Christians of Islamabad.The village represents an urban-rural divide. For many who live there, electricity is a precious commodity. Others use wild bushes and garbage to make fire. The people of Mehrabad can be broadly divided into two categories - the natives and the settlers. The natives own land and are comparatively well off. The settlers are people who came to Islamabad for economic opportunity and cannot afford to live in the developed sectors of the federal capital. There are 11 legal and four illegal slums in Islamabad which accommodate a large number of Christians. Many Christian women work as maids in nearby houses, and men are mostly daily wagers. They say they can deal with economic disparity, but not with religious discrimination. In the preliminary investigation, police authorities have cleared Rimsha Masih. Officials believe the girl had no idea what she was burning to make fire. Given the economic and social conditions of the area's Christians, the officials say they would not dare do such a thing on purpose. After the accusation was made, scores of angry men led by a local cleric gathered outside Christian houses. Cleric Hafiz Khalid Chishti claims he saved the girl from being lynched by the crowd. But he believed the 11 year old girl was of sound mind and burned the pages of Noorani Qaida deliberately. He called her act 'a conspiracy' but failed to elaborate what objectives she or other Christians would achieve by infuriating thousands of Muslim natives. During a Friday sermon, the cleric had provoked the worshippers to "wake up and protect" the Holy Quran. Several hundred Christians have lived in Mehrabad for the last 10 years. Over that period, they developed some semblance of a peaceful coexistence with their Muslim neighbours. They were not stopped from converting one of the houses into a church, but the Muslims complained against the playing of music during the mass. While the Rimsha Masih case was discussed in the Vatican, in the power corridors of Washington, and the conference halls of the United Nations, the civil society of Islamabad remained more or less indifferent. Rights activist Dr Farzana Bari admits. "We are living in a state of terror. The civil society in Pakistan is getting weaker and weaker. To express opinion on such sensitive matters is rather difficult," she explained. The belief that it is justified to kill in the name of religion is spreading fast in the Pakistani society, she feared. She argues the controversial blasphemy law is misused, often to settle personal vendetta. "Even the trial is unfair. The judges are very careful and don't decide the blasphemy cases, consequently the victims languish in jails for years and years." The People's Party government has also not been able to take a tough stance against religious intolerance and persecution. Perhaps it is preoccupied with dealing with other challenges threatening its survival.President Asif Ali Zardari has taken personal interest in the Rimsha Masih case, but there are many others buried under files in police and court records. Days after the blasphemy allegation made headlines, another horrible incident took place in Faisalabad. The mutilated body of Samuel Yaqoob, a Christian boy, was found on Eid day. Reports said the boy's lips and nose had been cut off and his stomach was removed. The police are investigating whether the boy was accused of blasphemy. On July 3, an angry mob burned a man alive in Bahawalpur after he was accused of desecrating the Quran. Police failed to protect the suspect and some of them were beaten up. Later, they registered a case against 2,000 people. On 15 April, 80-year old Iqbal Butt was shot dead by a cleric in Sheikhupura on similar allegations. The cleric who killed Butt had earlier accused him of blasphemy. The court had acquitted Butt.