Tag: minority persecution

  • FIR registered against Ahmadis for sacrificing goats on Eid-ul-Azha

    FIR registered against Ahmadis for sacrificing goats on Eid-ul-Azha

    As Eid-ul-Azha approached, Muslims around the world including in Pakistan celebrated by enjoying public holidays, holding large social gatherings, giving meat to the needy but it has not been a festival for the minority Ahmadi community as right-wing religious activists, mostly from Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), targeted them on the Holy days.

    Social media is abuzz with videos showing TLP members, helped by local police, searching for meat among the homes of Ahmadis.

    In Gojra, an Ahmadi was booked for sacrificing a goat on Eid-ul-Azha on the complaint of a TLP activist.

    “The suspect has committed severe abuse by following the rituals of Islam while pretending to be a Muslim,” said the FIR.

    A spokesperson of Jamaat Ahmadiyya in Pakistan stated, “Shocking reports of police and extremists raiding Ahmadi homes, confiscating meat. What kind of Eid celebrations is this for Ahmadis in Pakistan?”

    A 2022 Supreme Court judgement by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah ruled that obstructing non-Muslims from practising their religion within the confines of their place of worship was against the Constitution.

    The 2022 written order stated, “to deprive a non-Muslim (minority) of our country from holding his religious beliefs, to obstruct him from professing and practicing his religion within the four walls of his place of worship is against the grain of our democratic Constitution and repugnant to the spirit and character of our Islamic Republic.”

  • ‘Will die here but not go back’: Indians seek asylum in Pakistan

    ‘Will die here but not go back’: Indians seek asylum in Pakistan

    Two Indian citizens who illegally travelled to Karachi last week have asserted that they would rather go to jail in Pakistan than go back to their own country.

    Identified as Mohammad Hasnain and Ishaq Ameer, the father and son want to seek asylum as their lives are threatened in India with increased religious extremism and Islamophobia, Karachi police have said.

    Dawn spoke with Karachi Deputy Inspector General of Police (South) Asad Raza who stated that the two are not suspected spies, “but were considered victims of religious bias and persecution in India”.

    For now, both the Indians have been sent to an Edhi Shelter home. According to IGP Raza, they seem to want to seek asylum here.

    The duo also protested outside Karachi Press Club on September 25 against the Indian government and its persecution of Muslims.

    “We are ready to go to jail but not back to India,” the police quoted them in a statement. “We will be killed as soon as we step on Indian land if we are deported.

    “If you want to kill us, kill us in Pakistan. At least we will get some land (for burial). In India, we won’t even get that,”

    The father-son also spoke with the media.

    The two left New Delhi on September 5 for the UAE and approached Afghanistan embassy for a visa. They then travelled to Kabul followed by air travel to Kandahar where they spent a night.

    Shedding light on the atrocities committed in India against Muslims and the lack of media coverage, Hasnain states that they are not the first ones to flee the country, stressing that many others have left before them but they could afford foreign citizenship in Europe, America, Britain, Germany, or Canada.

    “Those who are well off migrated to Turkey, Azerbaijan, or Malaysia. I did not have that stature. I had less money,” he added.
    They were not allowed to check in a hotel room in Karachi since they did not possess an identification card.

    Hasnain’s son Ameer said that they directly went to the office of IG Sindh on reaching Orangi Town, Karachi.

    “As soon as we reached there, we kept our baggage on the side, raised our hands, and said we are here to surrender.”

  • Teenage Christian bride to stay with ‘kidnapper’, rules court

    Teenage Christian bride to stay with ‘kidnapper’, rules court

    In spite of the parents’ plea seeking the return of their underage girl, the Sindh High Court handed the custody of a 13-year-old Christian girl child to a Muslim who allegedly coerced the teenager into marriage after her abduction and forced conversion.

    Newsday Pakistan, an outlet focused on minority rights, reported the court as saying that Arzoo Raja had converted to Islam and married 45-year-old Ali Azhar out of her own free will; therefore, she was allowed to live with her husband. The court also ordered the police not to arrest Azhar and the other persons nominated in the FIR [First Information Report] by the girl’s family and to ensure the security of the couple.

    Ghazala Shafique, a rights activist based in Karachi, said the Sindh High Court’s refusal to take into account the documented age of Arzoo Raja, 13, and the falsification of documents had shocked the family and the entire Christian community.

    “According to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) records, Arzoo’s age is 13, as she was born on July 31, 2007,” she said. Sexual intercourse with a girl below the age of 16 is statutory rape and carries a death sentence or a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison in Pakistan.

    This is the second case of forced conversion of underage Christian girls in Karachi in a year. In October 2019, 14-year-old Huma Younas was kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam, according to reports.

    In Faisalabad, Punjab province, 14-year-old Maira Shahbaz was kidnapped and forcibly married and converted to Islam earlier this year.