Wednesday, September 18, 2019
#Pakistani plan for media courts sparks fears for press freedom
Pakistani government plans to launch specialist media courts sparked a furious backlash on Wednesday from media and rights advocates who said the move was an attack on freedom of speech.
Government spokesman Firdous Ashiq Awan said late on Tuesday that cases against the media would be heard by the special tribunals, which would be overseen by higher courts.The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) said the move was a “black day” for the Pakistani media and that they would fight the measures in the legislature and judiciary.
“Special courts aimed at intimidating and strangulating the media and freedom of expression are not only unconstitutional but also contrary to the spirit of democracy,” Hameed Haroon, APNS president, and Sarmad Ali, APNS secretary general, said in an emailed statement.
Journalists and human rights advocates have feared the introduction of the courts amid complaints of growing pressure on broadcasters and newspapers to avoid covering critics of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration.
In July, opposition parties accused Khan of intimidating broadcasters into a blackout on TV coverage of his critics, after several channels were briefly taken off-air and opposition protests and news conferences passed unreported.
Khan, who took office last year, has denied censoring media and has called the accusations a “joke”.
Government spokesman Awan said in a tweet that the existing media oversight body to be replaced by the special courts had been criticized for being under state control, and that the new courts would meet judicial standards and process cases faster. “The whole process will be a true reflection of laws and high democratic values,” she said, adding that journalists could also take complaints about the government to the media courts.
But that did not quell the fears of many freedom of speech advocates, with the non-governmental watchdog Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) saying it was alarmed.
“How are tribunals expected to maintain the media’s independence?” it said in a tweet. “Given the government’s woeful record on press freedoms, HRCP urges it to refrain from pressurizing the media further.” Pakistan’s press has had a turbulent relationship with successive governments and the powerful military for many years.
Writers and bloggers say several cases of reporters being abducted and beaten, critical columnists being denied space, advertising business cut to media houses and sackings of TV commentators have created a climate of fear and self-censorship.
https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/pakistani-plan-for-media-courts-marks-black-day-for-press-freedom/30171857.html
Bilawal slams PTI media witch-hunt, 'Niazi regime' censorship
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Wednesday that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) behaviour towards its opponents and critics was "reminiscent of Salem witch trials".
Bilawal, in a statement issued shortly after the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) Rawalpindi branch arrested the party's senior leader, Khursheed Shah, from Islamabad, condemned the PTI's attempt to launch a witch-hunt against media too after having entangled the Opposition leaders through the anti-graft watchdog.
The way the PTI dealt with opponents and critics was "based on frivolity and falsehoods, the PTI’s narrative is right out of Goebbels’ propaganda playbook”, he said.
According to the NAB's sources, Shah was arrested in a case pertaining to acquiring assets beyond means of income.
Speaking about the media, the PPP chair said the ruling party was "going to go after its critics in the media through these so-called media tribunals" now that the PTI had "found an easy way to imprison its political opponents by unleashing NAB".
Terming the tribunals as "nothing but another way of silencing dissent", Bilawal said the PTI’s social media team followed the exact same path of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "bhakts" who, he said, discredited and harassed critics online.
"Now, they want to go after media organisations through these special tribunals because the media is exposing select PM’s ineptitude and incompetence," he added.
“We stand for the freedom of media. Pakistan’s media is going through its worst phase of censorship under the Niazi regime. We will not allow them to target the media so blatantly and brazenly.
"Enough is enough. The media fraternity, too, must raise its voice for their own rights. The Opposition firmly stands behind them,” Bilawal stated.
Profile: Khursheed Ahmed Shah — a politician through and through
Born in 1952, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah hails from Sindh’s Sukkur region, which he went on to represent as an MPA and later as MNA. He studied at Sukkur’s Islamia College and obtained the degrees of MA and LLB.
He was elected to the Sindh Assembly in 1988 during which he was made a provincial minister holding a wide range of portfolios – education, import and transport being some of them. He made his way to the parliament in 1990.
Shah also served as a federal minister for education in 1993, during slain PPP leader, Benazir Bhutto's second government. In 2008, he was elected from NA-199 (Sukkur cum Shikarpur-II), PPP and became minister for labour and human resources. He was made the federal minister for religious affairs in 2010.
In 2013, he was elected from NA-199 (Sukkur-cum-Shikarpur-II), PPP and became the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.
He was elected to the National Assembly once again in 2018, as he won NA-206 (Sukkur-1) and is the opposition's joint nominee for speaker's position.
Shah enjoys an influential position in the PPP and was its chief whip in the 2008-2013 National Assembly. He is considered a trouble-shooter as far as relations with other parties are concerned, mainly on account of his good connections with all political parties.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1426962/profile-khursheed-ahmed-shah-a-politician-through-and-through
#PPP - Govt arrested Khursheed Shah to divert attention from failure over Kashmir: Bilawal Bhutto
He was speaking at a press conference following a consultative session held by the party to deliberate the next course of action in the wake of the arrest.
"If you can't lead your own nation, how can you lead a cause outside the country?" asked Bilawal, addressing Prime Minister Imran Khan.
"When in your own country, the death of democracy is being witnessed, how can you save democracy in Kashmir," he continued.
"How can [the premier] raise his voice for political prisoners in Kashmir when he is arresting politicians in his own country?" asked the PPP chairman in a rebuke to the prime minister.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday arrested Shah in a case regarding his alleged assets beyond means.
The PPP stalwart was arrested in a joint operation by NAB's Rawalpindi and Sukkur chapters, DawnNewsTV reported. He will remain in NAB Rawalpindi's custody tonight.
Bilawal, during his press conference sought to provide a pattern for the alleged practice by the government in which it makes use of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to "hide its own failures".
https://www.dawn.com/news/1505928/govt-arrested-khursheed-shah-to-divert-attention-from-failure-over-kashmir-bilawal-bhutto
"We strongly condemn (Shah's) arrest, and especially right now, because it seems that whenever an opportunity presents itself to send a strong message to our Kashmiri brethren [...] the government uses NAB to break national unity, to aggravate the opposition and to divert the attention of the people."
"When the attack on Kashmir was still fresh (the August 5 presidential decree stripping it of its autonomous status), we could have used the joint parliamentary session platform to send a message of support [...] but the government arrested Maryam Nawaz."
He then spoke of senior PPP leader Faryal Talpur's arrest during Eid in Muzaffarabad where representatives from various parties had gone in a show of solidarity with Kashmiris.
"Another opportunity had presented itself [...] then too, Faryal Talpur was illegally shifted to jail at night from hospital," he added. "And then today again we witnessed how an effort by the Senate was made to do what — in the time of a national crisis — was simply not being done," said Bilawal, referring to a discussion held on Kashmir in the presence of representatives from all political parties.
"So the Senate took a step to discuss Kashmir and then once more, right then, Shah sahib was arrested. All so that attention is diverted from [the government's] historical failure on Kashmir," said Bilawal.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Overcoming Pakistan's period taboo
There is no sex-education in schools and the topic is rarely discussed.
Booni, Pakistan: Bent over her hand-crank sewing machine, Hajra Bibi carefully stitches sanitary pads for the women of her mountainous village in northwestern Pakistan, one of many rural areas in the deeply conservative country where periods are still taboo.
"I am responding to a crisis," said the 35-year-old mother, sitting in front of her small, doily-covered work table in the village of Booni, close to the Afghan border.
"Before, Booni's women had no idea what sanitary towels were," she explained. Less than a fifth of women use sanitary pads in Pakistan, local charities estimate.
Traditionally women have used rags and cloth to soak up their menstrual blood, but the stigma around periods and a lack of reproductive education means hygiene standards are poor and many contracted infections.
As with other areas of rural Pakistan, menstruating women were viewed as unclean and limited in what they were able to do.
Bibi was given training to make the disposable sanitary pads, made of cotton, plastic, and cloth, by the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) - an NGO working with Unicef - in a scheme that aims to change attitudes to women's health.
She took up the work to support her family because her husband is disabled and they have little income. Each pad takes around 20 minutes to make and is sold for 20 rupees (13 US cents).
Initially her work disturbed the local community.
Baulking at the thought
"At first, people were asking me why I was doing this, some were insulting me," Bibi recalled.
But now, "girls in the village can talk about their periods", she said proudly, adding that she was fighting "for the basic needs of women".
Infection and education
In Pakistan, Unicef has warned that in some cases information about menstruation has deliberately been withheld from women as a "means of protecting their chastity".
"This in turn negatively impacts their physical and emotional health," it said in a 2018 report.
Historically, the women of Booni have used cloth, but according to Bushra Ansari of AKRSP the taboo surrounding periods meant many were ashamed to dry them outside, unaware that damp cloths are a breeding ground for bacteria.
In addition, female family members often shared the same menstrual rags, increasing the risk of contracting urinary and reproductive tract infections, explained Wassaf Sayed Kakakhail, a doctor in the region.
"If there are three girls in the same family, they all use the same pieces of fabric," she said, adding many women are told not to wash during their period.
There is no sex-education in schools and the topic is rarely discussed - even between women - at homes in northern Pakistan, a particularly conservative part of the country.
According to a 2017 Unicef survey, half of young Pakistani women had no knowledge of menstruation before their periods started.
"Teen girls told us that they thought they had cancer, or a very serious illness that made them bleed," said Kakakhail.
But Mohammad Haidar Ulmulk, public health director for Chitral District, where Booni is, insisted the problem was under control.
"There may be gaps, but we try to cover them," he said, adding that the area had hundreds of health workers trying to help young women.
'Sister, mother, wife'
The situation is different in cities, especially among the richest. But in the patriarchal Muslim country - ranked 148th out of 149 by the World Economic Forum for gender equality - and where sexist stereotypes persist, access to basic feminine hygiene products remains difficult.
In Karachi, a metropolis of twenty million people seen as the most liberal city in Pakistan, sanitary pads are easily accessible, though expensive.
Many women are still made to feel uneasy by leering shopkeepers and ask their husbands to buy them instead.
"Some people buy them late at night, others prefer to buy them in a different neighbourhood," said Sajjad Ali, 32, a store owner.
In shops like this, sanitary pads are wrapped in opaque paper, instead of in transparent bags like other products.
"Periods are treated as taboo and surrounded by mystery," said Seema Shiekh, a women's rights activist.
But she asks: "Doesn't every man have a sister, wife or a mother?"
After twenty years of battling to introduce sex education classes in Pakistan, the first lessons are finally being given in public schools in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital.
Among their aims will be to put an end to the fear surrounding periods in a country where the onset of menstruation is one of the main reasons girls drop out of school.
Some 28 percent of women surveyed in 2017 by Unicef indicated that they had missed school or work because of stomach pain or worry over staining their clothes.
Bibi - who is working alongside 80 other women trained to make sanitary pads - is confident things will change in Booni too.
She mused: "With this project, I have made people aware."
Game over for Pakistan’s invisible forces
By IMAD ZAFARThis is the age of misinformation and propaganda. Their use has always been prevalent on the power chessboard of Pakistan, but now it is at a peak. The reason is that the nerve-racking battle between the mighty establishment and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has entered the final stage. No one wants to lose this battle, as Sharif has put everything at risk including the life and future of his daughter Maryam Nawaz, while the military establishment’s 70-year hegemony is under threat, as slowly and gradually Sharif with the help of his political allies is forcing the establishment into a dead-end street. No one could have thought that only 14 months after sending Sharif to prison the security establishment would start backtracking from the power chessboard. The Pakistani establishment is not simply powerful in its own right, with the controlled media and hegemony over state resources, but the current engineered discourse has been backed by Riyadh and Washington. Not a single analyst could have predicted that a regime backed by these superpowers could be defeated. However, all that changed when the establishment proved incapable of pre-empting India’s annexation of Kashmir. That proved to be the last nail in the coffin of the current political discourse.According to whistleblowers in the power corridors who do not wish to be named, there is a rift within the security establishment, with many high-ranking officials wanting not only an end to military involvement in political matters but for certain heads to roll. The announcement by Fazal-ur-Rehman, president of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) party, of a planned “long march” to Islamabad in October and to hold a sit-in there is not a coincidence by any means. It is believed by many whistleblowers that Fazal has the backing of certain quarters within the establishment who do not want the current dispensation to continue. These people are angry over the Kashmir fiasco and the political engineering that resulted in the current political and economic turmoil in Pakistan. However, as no one likes to give up power easily, this final round is getting uglier and uglier, with the establishment trying to persuade Sharif not to join Fazal’s long march and instead offering him deals, including new general elections in 2020 with Sharif and his daughter given a clean chit. On the other hand, Shahbaz Sharif, who is currently heading the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the absence of his older brother Nawaz and Maryam, is being asked to persuade Nawaz to accept the deal. Some compliant journalists and pro-establishment politicians are spreading misinformation about Sharif accepting the deal to get new elections in return for not backing Fazal, and that he and Maryam will leave the country for a while. Since propaganda plays a very crucial role in determining the outcome of political battles, it it probable that the establishment is using this as its last tool to recoup a game it has already lost. However, Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan, a member of PML-N, is of a different view. He told this correspondent that Sharif would never accept any deal, especially now that he has nothing left to lose and the establishment has everything to lose. Perhaps he is right: Sharif has lost his wife and his daughter and political heir Maryam Nawaz is in jail, while his own character has been assassinated. So it is the establishment that has everything to lose. It has no answer as to why the government it sponsored, headed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is not able to avert the economic turmoil and why there has been no sound response from Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir. This itself is a victory for Sharif as he has been in prison for 14 months, and yet he and Maryam remain the key subjects of the TV talk shows and newspaper headlines. The inexperienced Prime Minister Imran Khan has also played into the hands of Maryam Nawaz. He not only kept Sharif alive politically by trying to hold him responsible for the PTI government’s failures but he also became unnerved by the huge public gatherings in support of Maryam. So right now the establishment is fighting to continue its hegemony over state affairs while Sharif only needs to sit and bide his time. Meanwhile Fazal is gearing up for a massive show in Islamabad and the Kashmir issue is putting immense pressure on the establishment. Only a man with no political acumen can make a deal with a regime that is already sinking under its own weight and errors. The Pakistan Peoples Party is an example in this regard, having succumbed to establishment pressure and betrayed the opposition many times, most recently by announcing that it will not join Fazal’s protest. Perhaps the PPP in return will get a little relief but in the long run, it will remain limited to the Sindh interior as far as electoral politics is concerned. A defiant Sharif was always going to checkmate the establishment, even from behind prison walls. But the establishment perhaps fell prey to its own propaganda and somehow started living in the hallucination that Sharif was history and the invisible forces had won the battle. The journalists who always go with the wind also kept both Khan and the establishment in the illusion of a victory that never was real but only limited to the TV screens and newspapers. ECP ruling favors Maryam On Tuesday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced its verdict on a petition for the disqualification of Maryam Nawaz as a vice-president of her party. The petition was dismissed, and she carry on as the de facto head the PML-N. But that is not likely the end of the story: Look for the pro-establishment news channels to propagate very soon that the ECP ruling is evidence that Sharif has accepted a deal. However, in reality, Sharif is as defiant as he was before, and it seems he will eventually risk everything to win the battle for democratic supremacy in the country. The only thing Sharif needs is patience. Whether he backs Fazal’s protest or not is irrelevant, as if a prisoner is being approached to make a deal with the establishment, this clearly shows who is actually winning the battle. It is just now a matter of Sharif keeping his nerve, while the establishment will need a miracle to get out of this self-created catch-22 position. Many observers and analysts a year and a half ago believed that the party was over for Sharif, as not only would he be sent packing but his PML-N would also be dismantled and the establishment would prevail, and many analysts endorsed Imran Khan. Perhaps they now will realize that the party was never over for Sharif but in fact the events of a year and a half ago were the beginning of the end – “game over” for the establishment on the power chessboard. https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/opinion/party-was-never-over-however-it-is-game-over-for-the-invisible-forces/
Pakistan faces heat at UNHRC over religious discrimination; blasphemy laws
Islamabad may face major embarrassment at the UNHRC after an NGO submitted a petition at the session against enforced disappearances, with the Pakistan Army singled out as the biggest perpetrator behind these disappearances.
The second phase of the UNHRC session involves participation of non-government organisations, and several NGOs and civil society groups have submitted petitions to the Council on rampant enforced disappearances, misuse of blasphemy laws and discrimination against religious minorities, including Christians, besides the Shia community, ET has learnt.
Islamabad may face major embarrassment at the UNHRC after an NGO submitted a petition at the session against enforced disappearances, with the Pakistan Army singled out as the biggest perpetrator behind these disappearances.
“Despite growing anger in Pakistan over the prevalence of enforced disappearances, criminalized by international charters and conventions such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the government has yet to acknowledge its responsibility for hundreds of people who have been arbitrarily detained in secret places by the Pakistani army, especially the Baloch minority,” according to a written statement submitted by Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights Association.
“The Pakistani army continues to commit enforced disappearances on the basis of identity,” it alleges, adding 44 people in different parts of Pakistan, such as Awaran and Kech, were forcibly detained in June alone.
“The blasphemy laws are worded in such manner that enable easy misuse. This accommodates false accusations initiated to settle personal scores, economic competition issues and sectarian differences. The laws are routinely used to target religious minorities for personal or political motives and result in a violation of fundamental rights,” the petition by NGO Jubilee Campaign alleges.
In April, security forces forcibly took away 59 persons from Awaran, Kech, Gwadar, Lasbela, Panjgur districts of Balochistan, according to the NGO.
Another petition before the UNHRC alleges that between 1987 and 2017, 1,500 people or more were charged with blasphemy, of which 730 were Muslims, 501 were Ahmadis, 205 Christians and 26 were Hindus.“The blasphemy laws are worded in such manner that enable easy misuse. This accommodates false accusations initiated to settle personal scores, economic competition issues and sectarian differences. The laws are routinely used to target religious minorities for personal or political motives and result in a violation of fundamental rights,” the petition by NGO Jubilee Campaign alleges.
Last week, the wife of a deceased Pakistan Army General who belonged to the Shia community was denied permission to host a religious meet at her Karachi cantonment home.
On August 21, a group of religious minorities submitted a 10-point memorandum to the Pakistani government demanding recognition of their human rights.
The memorandum demands that the minimum marriage age be raised from 16 to 18, the creation of a federal ministry for religious minorities; a 5% quota for scholarships; protection for houses of worship; legislation to prevent discrimination in employment, education and society; designated prayer locations in public places; removal of books promoting hate against religious minorities; and criminal justice reforms to protect women from the daily violence they face, including abductions, sexual violence and forced conversions.
On August 21, a group of religious minorities submitted a 10-point memorandum to the Pakistani government demanding recognition of their human rights.
The memorandum demands that the minimum marriage age be raised from 16 to 18, the creation of a federal ministry for religious minorities; a 5% quota for scholarships; protection for houses of worship; legislation to prevent discrimination in employment, education and society; designated prayer locations in public places; removal of books promoting hate against religious minorities; and criminal justice reforms to protect women from the daily violence they face, including abductions, sexual violence and forced conversions.
Hindu medical student found dead under mysterious conditions in Pakistan
Namrita Chandani, a final year student of Bibi Asifa Dental College in Pakistan's Larkana was found dead in her hostel room. Local police said it was too early to say whether she had committed suicide or had been murdered.
#JusticeForNimrita
Elder brother of Nimarta, Dr. Wishal is not only doctor but he is FCPS consultant physician at Dow Medical University Karachi.
According to him, he believes this is not suicide but a murder.@BBhuttoZardari@fbhutto@ImranKhanPTI #larkana
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Monday, September 16, 2019
#Pakistan #PPP - Will have to fight undemocratic forces to save federation: Bilawal
Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Sunday that they would have to fight undemocratic forces in order to save the federation.
Addressing a workers’ convention in Larkana, the PPP chairman said a few people were unable to tolerate the 18th amendment of the constitution.
“In the past too, people were unable to tolerate the 1973 constitution,” he told the attendees. “We’ll have to fight undemocratic forces. We’ll have to save the federation.”
Bilawal said his party’s government in the past took revolutionary steps like that of introducing the Benazir Income Support Programme.
“Asif Zardari saved the country by chanting ‘Pakistan Khappay’,” he said, in reference to the resentment among the masses following the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The PPP chairman said his party granted autonomy to the provinces and a unanimous constitution to the country.
“In our tenure, power lied with the people. [Zulfiqar Ali] Bhutto Shaheed brought back 90,000 prisoners of war,” he noted.
“The undemocratic forces disliked Bhutto’s achievements and put him in jail, yet he remained firm on his principles.”
Bilawal accused the incumbent government of “plundering the constitutional and financial rights of the provinces”.
“The government didn’t give a single rupee to Karachi in the last one year,” he said. “It wants to seize the city on the pretext of garbage.”
The PPP chairman said the current rulers thought that they could bring a puppet government in Sindh by throwing its leadership into jails.
“Asif Zardari has previously served his time in prisons and can serve it now as well,” he said. “But he will not bow before this government.”
Bilawal dared the government to arrest whosoever it wanted to, asserting that they would not make a compromise on their principled stance.
“We will not make a compromise on the 18th amendment, economic justice and democratic principles,” he said.
“These people are busy trying to break our members for the past one year,” the PPP chairman said, noting, “We form government with the power of the people.”
He said the people of Sindh had given their mandate to the PPP and they were ready to respond to the puppet government in the centre.
“The people of Sindh will not tolerate a puppet chief minister,” he said.
Bilawal further criticised the government for incarcerating the entire political leadership of the country “without having been sentenced”. “If Asif Zardari and Faryal Talpur have done any wrong, then why do [you] not punish them?”
He shamed the government for depriving the masses of employment and shelter, despite having promised them 10 million jobs and 5 million houses.
“The government compromised the country’s economic sovereignty by bowing before the IMF,” the PPP chairman slammed.
Concluding his address, he gave a deadline of the year’s end to the government for mending its ways.
“We have always refused to stage a sit-in in Islamabad,” Bilawal said. “However, if the coalition partners and selectors of the government will not send it home, then we will come to Islamabad and do it.”
Hindus fear for their lives after Pakistan blasphemy riots
Communal riots have erupted in Ghotki, a southern Pakistani town, after a charged mob attacked a school due to blasphemy accusations against its Hindu principal. Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in the Islamic country.
Violent protesters attacked a school on Sunday after a blasphemy case was filed against Nautan Lal, principal of the Sindh Public School.
Abdul Aziz Rajput, a student's father, complained to the police that Lal had insulted Islam.
Blasphemy, which is punishable by death in Pakistan, is a sensitive topic in the country, where 97% of its 180 million inhabitants are Muslim.
Rights activists have demanded reforms of controversial blasphemy laws, which were introduced by the Islamic military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s. Activists say the laws have little to do with blasphemy and are often used to settle petty disputes and personal vendettas.
According to rights groups, around 1,549 blasphemy cases have been registered in Pakistan between 1987 and 2017. More than 75 people have been killed extra-judicially on blasphemy allegations. Some of them were even targeted after being acquitted in blasphemy cases by courts.
Pakistan's Christians and other religious minorities have often complained of legal and social discrimination in their country. In the past few years, many Christians and Hindus have been brutally murdered over unproven blasphemy allegations.
Hindus locked inside their homes
Ghotki, a small town in southern Sindh province, has a considerable population of Hindus, who have been living there before the partition of British-ruled India in 1947.
Sindh province is known for its mystical ethos, where Hindus, Sikhs and Christians have coexisted with Muslims for centuries. But in the past few years, extremism has gripped the region, with hardline Muslim groups attacking temples and forcing Hindus to convert to Islam.
The riots in Ghotki have forced the Hindu community to remain indoors, as authorities have deployed police forces in the city.
Jaipal Chhabria, the president of the Pakistan Hindu Forum, told DW that the Hindu community in Ghotki feels more insecure after the riots.
"Nautan Lal only scolded a Muslim boy for not completing his homework. The boy accused him of blasphemy and that triggered violent protests in the city. The Hindus in the area are frightened and have locked themselves in their houses," Chhabria said.
Chhabria claimed that a local religious leader and his supporters were involved in the Sunday school attack.
The school principal and his family have reportedly gone into hiding, fearing mob attacks.
"How can they live in Ghotki anymore?" said Rajesh Kumar, a Ghotki resident. "Once a person is accused of blasphemy, they cannot live in that area. In the past, mobs have killed many people on blasphemy allegations."
Some reports say the police have taken the principal into custody and moved him to an undisclosed location due to security concerns.
Inadequate state help
Rights activists have demanded the provincial government protect the Hindu community in Ghotki.
Hari Lal Bhagia, the secretary-general of the Upper Sindh Hindu Panchayiat, told DW that the authorities are trying to restore peace in the area. "But these extremist groups are quite powerful, and even the government looks helpless. That is why the Hindu community in the area feels even more vulnerable to attacks," Bhagia said.
But Sajjad Ali Soomro, a local rights activist, said that the indifference of state authorities has emboldened extremist groups in a province that used to be a beacon of religious harmony in the country.
"On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered outside the police station and later started attacking Hindu houses, businesses and temples. The authorities did not intervene," Soomro said.
Senator Taj Haider, whose Pakistan People's Party — headed by Bilawal Bhutto — governs Sindh province, admitted that the police should have stopped the mob from attacking Hindu properties.
Haider, however, insists that the provincial government is not to be blamed for religious disharmony in the area.
"We handed over a list of 300 religious seminaries that have been propagating hatred and extremist ideas to the federal government, but it did not take any action against these elements," he told DW.
Police have booked several people for damaging public property and inciting violence in Ghotki.
Religious minorities feel 'unsafe' in Pakistan
Hindus make up around 2.5% of Pakistan's population. The majority of them, over 90%, live in Sindh.
There have been reports that the number of Hindus migrating to neighboring India has increased in recent years.
Pakistan's Christians, and other religious minorities, have often complained of legal and social discrimination in their country.
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent years on death row in Pakistan on a blasphemy charge, left for Canada to join her family in May. Bibi and her family had to stay in hiding even after she was acquitted by the country's Supreme Court in October 2018.
Recently, Baldev Kumar, a former legislator from Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, sought asylum in India for himself and his family. The 43-year-old politician alleged that Pakistan is an "unsafe country" and that the Imran Khan-led government mistreats minorities there.
In the past few years, many Christians and Hindus have been brutally murdered over unproven blasphemy allegations.
In one case, a young Christian girl with Down Syndrome was accused in August 2012 of burning pages upon which verses of the Koran were inscribed. Rimsha Masih was taken into police custody and only released months later, when charges were dropped. The case caused an uproar in her hometown and beyond and sparked riots and violence against Christians in the region. In 2013, she and her family relocated to Canada.
In 2014, a Christian couple was beaten to death for allegedly desecrating a copy of the Koran. Their bodies were subsequently burned in a brick kiln.
In September last year, a Christian man in Pakistan was sentenced to death for sharing "blasphemous" material on WhatsApp.
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