PAKISTAN: Prejudice leads to murder of a Christian

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that faith-based prejudice has led to the murder of a Christian businessman by Muslim meat sellers looking to grab land. The murderers are close aides of a political coordinator of a federal minister from the ruling political party. Due to the political clout of the three culprits, they have been allowed to go scot-free. Police officers from the local police station held a jirga, i.e. an illegal and parallel court, in which the victim’s family has been forcibly silenced and made to settle.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Nazir Masih, 50, son of Surjan Masih, and resident of Wandala Dayal Shah, Tahsil Ferozwala, District Shaikhupura, Punjab, was working as a local property dealer. Masih was soliciting a property deal between Mahar Din and certain buyers, Mr. Hyder, Mr. Nazar, and Mr. Achy Gujjar, who are local butchers of the area. It was agreed the property would be sold for Rupees 250,000, and the three men paid 50,000 Rupee of the total value.

On April 4, Nazir Masih was asked by the accused to transfer the land plot. He refused to oblige, stating that Rupees 200,000 was still due from their side. On the next day, Hyder, Nazar, and Achay Gujjar, called Masih and asked him to meet them at the residence of a local Christian, Manzoor Masih, at Cavalry Park at 5 p.m.

During the meeting, the accused insisted upon transferring the land without settling the remaining amount. This resulted in a heated argument between the accused and Masih. Controlling the situation, Manzoor mediated between the parties and it was decided that the remaining amount would be paid by the accused and that the plot would be transferred on April 10.

After the meeting, Masih went out to cut grass for his cows. Unknown to him Hyder, Nazar, and Achay Gujjar were hiding nearby. They shouted: “kill the choora” (a derogatory remark against low caste Christians). The three accused then butchered Nazir with sharp knife: cutting his neck and mouth. They later fled the scene, leaving Nazir in a pool of blood.

The killers wanted to justify the murder of Masih with the argument that he had committed blasphemy. People who saw Masih’s dead body informed Masih’s son, who immediately went to the Police Station to file a First Information Report (FIR) against the accused. However, the police refused to file a complaint. Following the protest of local Christians, a case was filed against unknown persons, even though witnesses and the heirs of the deceased identified the accused.

The Cavalry Ground police asked the aggrieved family to accept monetary compensation and settle the matter, as the murderers are powerful and are the henchmen of the Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Rana Tanveer Hussain.

The accused are also believed to have the backing of a local political coordinator, Raja Ishaq, who works for Rana Tanveer Hussain, the Federal Minister. Raja Ishaq held a jirga / panchayat at the Cavalry Ground Police Station and decided that the family will be compensated by the accused, who will pay blood money. The family of the deceased was also threatened – that they will be implicated in blasphemy charges, as the victim had burned pages of the Quran, holy book of Islam. In the face of this threat, the family decided to accept the decision of the panchayat. They felt they had no other form of redress available to them.

It is not the first time that Ishaq has used his clout over the community. Earlier in 2012, a Christian boy, Adnan, was arrested under fabricated charges and tortured to death by the police. Ishaq intervened in the case to save the police, stating that the boy had committed suicide.

The Christian community has been denied its right to political representation. Faith-based prejudices have been allowed to flourish by the State so that manipulative and coercive authority can be exercised over the minorities.

The Constitution, under Article 25, guarantees equality of citizens stating, “All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.” However, religious discrimination and prejudice continues with complete impunity granted by the State.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Right (ICCPR), to which Pakistan is a signatory, states in Article 26, “All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

The reality however is that these guarantees exist only on paper. And, the Christian community continues to suffer in silence for no fault of theirs.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The religious persecution of Christians is rampant in Punjab Province; Christians have suffered immense injustice at the hands of the local influential people who have been exerting their political and social clout to subjugate the community. 

There are four Christian colonies in the area, which have a vote bank of 5,000. They are located in Locus Park, Easa Nagri, Cavelry Park, and Wandala Dayal Shah in Sheikhapura District, Punjab Province. In these Christians colonies, most of the men work with the Water and Sanitary Agency (WASA), cleaning roads on daily wages, while women work as domestic workers.

The area is being controlled or rather terrorized by local police, who patronize Muslim drug dealers. The dealers themselves maintain their authority by killing and raping the Christian residents and treating them as personal slaves. The Christians in these localities thus have no access to justice due to abject property and many fear reprisals from the drug sellers who have political and religious influence. Due to these reasons, the Christian community in the area is not willing to approach law enforcement or political authorities. Even if someone is brave enough to try, he or she is made an example of, which further erodes the confidence of the marginalized community in the system. Many Christians of the area have left their houses and migrated to other cities; many of them have left the country and are seeking asylum in Bangkok, USA, Canada, Australia, Europe, and Korea.

Religious discrimination by the Muslim majority of the country has isolated Christian citizens. Denied their right to representation in the political arena, the community is left by the State to fend for itself. And, there is no sign of protest from the Muslim community whenever Christian neighbors are attacked. The bias has torn the moral and social fabric of the Pakistani society as a whole, resulting in anarchy being witnessed today.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the mentioned authorities calling upon them to arrest and prosecute the murderers of the Christian property agent. Please also urge them to take strong action against the Cavalry Ground Police Station for holding an illegal jirga and forcing family members to accept the amount offered by the murderers under the threat of being implicated in a case of blasphemy. 

The authorities should also protect the aggrieved family, help them get redress, stop the religious persecution of the community, and take strong action against the unconstitutional parallel justice system of jirgas, which perpetuates violence against the weak and vulnerable.

The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Freedom of Religion and Belief, calling for the Special Rapporteur’s intervention into this matter.

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