Volume 1, Issue 4
September 2013
SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
SINDH GUARDIAN
Inside this issue: On the Hill: SAPAC Advocacy
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Seeds of War in the land of the Sufis
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Enforced Disappearances
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Plight of Pakistani Minorities
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Contact page
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On the Hill: SAPAC Advocacy By Hector Quintana We come to you with news of the Sindhi American Political Action Committee’s progress with both the House and Senate on Capitol Hill. From September 10th to the 12th we held a three-day advocacy campaign to spread knowledge of Sindhi culture, as well as issues that plague modern day Sindh in terms of the U.S. relationship with Pakistan. We were very fortunate to arrange 73 meetings with the offices of both Representatives and Senators at a crucial time for both our organization and Congress. Meeting times were chaotic as our meetings coincided with Congress entering a new session. Despite this we were able to not only attain meetings, but also meet with individual Representatives and Senators. The offices of all Congress people were receptive to us, as well as very patient and attentive in our advocacy campaign. Most reflected and retorted with engaging questions that really showed the depth of their concern. We wish to continue SAPAC’s warm relationship with Congress. The issues that conveyed during “We were very our meetings were those that correspond to recent articles on current fortunate to conditions in Sindh as well as a arrange 73 history lesson explaining the U.S.Pakistani relationship. A number of meetings with human rights violations persist, which both are as follows: Representatives and senators…”
Enforced disappearances Religious extremism Ethnic violence Unlawful arrests/torture Forced marriages/conversions
The conversations went in depth with these topics so as to create an understanding of what U.S. foreign aid to Pakistan actually achieves. It lies within the logistics of foreign aid that the Sindh region should suffer from lack of U.S. funds, because the formal channels that money is appropriated to, the government, is in fact responsible for the violations. Together with Congress we can discover a more active way to deal with the injustices and human rights violations plaguing Sindh, and
promptly bring them to an end. We give our greatest admiration and thanks to all those who aided our advocacy campaign by attending meetings and supporting our cause. You’re attendance and support was invaluable for not only SAPAC but in representing Sindh and our ongoing relationship with the United States government and its people.
-image by Tim Murphy, www.housingworks.org
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SINDH GUARDIAN
Seeds of war and terror in the Land of Sufis by Naseer Memon Madrassa is a seminary for Islamic teachings, where free education with other food facilities, shelters, and day-to-day activities are provided for the students. There are thousands of madrassas in Pakistan whose big funding comes from outside resources, and Saudi Arabia is the top financial supporter whereas very little amount of funding comes from Zakat. In Pakistan some Madrassas are registered and some are not. A survey conducted in Pakistan states that there are 12, 595 madrassas alone in the Sindh province. The survey report states that around 74% of these madrassas are in the metropolitan cities of Sindh Province Karachi, Hyderabad, and Sukkur. The survey showed that around 600 madrassas are engaged in terrorist activities, preparing holy warriors for jihad. 1261 madrassas adhere to different faiths like Braveli, Deobandi, Ehle Tashi , Wahabi etc. and 8191 madrassas were opened after the 9/11 attack. The strange thing is that two-thirds of the madrassas belonged to those who don’t belong to Sindh. Reports revealed the figures of around 150,000 students were enrolled in these madrassas. After the 1980s, extremism expanded fast and furiously and has reached the point where controlling it has become quite difficult. The Abbottabad manhunt incident has exposed faces of supporters of the most wanted person, Osama Bin Laden. It showed that Osama bin Laden existed in Pakistan since 2002 and also has revealed the truth of the militants’ parties of governmental structure, who supported and protected him from the hands of law. Areas near to the Afghan border were under the influence of the Taliban, but Sindh was protected from the faiths dictums by comparison to other provinces in Pakistan. Religious extremism has been imported in the land of Sufis, Sindh, from extrinsic sources and has deeply planted its roots and now it has become difficult to ignore it. First time attacks have been made on the shrines of peace loving Sufis in last two decades and Sajada Nasheen (leaders of Shrines) were also targeted by the extremist groups. Blasphemy cases have increased and a man was beaten to death and burned by extremists on the road, publicly, in relation to a blasphemy case. Dozens of Hindu girls have been abducted and forcibly converted to mar-
ry Muslim men by zealots, and the courts have ruled in favor of these zealots. Due to no protection and forcible conversion, Hindu families, scared and in fear, have left Pakistan and migrated to India in great numbers. Fanatic gangs, who have targeted Shias, Christians, and political leaders as well as common citizens, have killed many people in Karachi. They tortured and brutally killed innocent citizens by chopping their bodies and packing them inside bags and discarding them in large drains or on the side of the road. Religious extremism is deeply rooted in the era of patrician, which is based on the two nation’s theory. Two nation’s theory’s aim was to give precedence to religion over law and run the system of the state based on religious laws. When they started to gain freedom from the British, it was not based on religion, but on gaining political and geographical freedom from them. The partition of the small continent of the Hindu and Muslim bases was severely criticized by great scholars like Abdl Kalam, the founder of Pakistan Quaid e Azam, and many others. These scholars were well known for this religiously based partition and the bitter consequences that followed. In the current parliamentary democratic system, it is impossible to run a system in the state that is based on the religion, and the religious sects’ conditions are so severe that they refer to each other as Kafir (non-Muslim). These religious parties are under controversy and cannot agree on the date for the start of Ramadan. How is it possible to run a country in these conditions? If it were possi-
SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION
ble to run a country on the bases of two nations theory, then Bengal, which had half the population of Pakistan at that time, would never have become Bangladesh. Bengal proved that a state cannot run on the bases of two nation’s theory but instead, should be run on the bases of democracy, equality, freedom and the equal rights. Islamic federation, rather than a socially modern and democratic parliamentary system, cannot rule a country like Pakistan, which is based on the different creeds and has diverse cultures. This is why for the last 65 years, although there is an apex of national slogans and songs and ma-
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jority religion, the country is on its way back to the dark ages. Since Pakistan’s formation, a dictatorship has been imposed on the democratic country in the name of the religion and country’s protection. Every dictator ruled the country for ten years under the shadow of state and religion. Under the dictatorship regime, minorities were more violated by those who were labeled as non-organized and agents of the neighboring countries and were deprived of their basic rights. The period of outrage
Enforced Disappearance case: Pakistan by Husain Bux Thebo On July 15, 2013 at 10:30 am, two brothers, Mohammad Ali Noonari and Zafar Hussain Noonari, were beaten and forcibly kidnapped by secret agents from a Sitara Hillal Caltex gas station. Mohammad Ali Hoonar and Zafar Hussain Noonari, are the sons of Mr. Hohammad Mosa and Mrs. Nazeer Bano. The eldest son, Zafar Hussain, worked as a cashier at Sitara Hilal Caltez Petrol pump, and Mohammad Ali, the younger son, is a student at Mehran University in the department of Human Resources and Management. Mohammad Ali also has a part time job working as a translator for Sukar Newspaper. On July 15, 2013 at 10:30 am, Muhammad Ali went to his brother’s job to purchase vegetables and other items for the family at the gas station. There, some agents in civil dress ambushed the brothers, beat them, put them in their vehicles, and drove off. The agents’ vehicles were one double cabin vehicle (SUV?), with the licenses NO: ADC 711, and a car with the licenses NO: SP 8840. The mother, Mrs. Nazeer
Bano, was informed of her sons’ forced kidnapping by some relatives who had witnessed the incident. She then immediately went to the Hyderabad Police Senior Superintendent asking for information about her sons. The police told her that her sons would be released after some questioning and an investigation, but their whereabouts were never disclosed. After that, she searched again for her sons, returning to the police many times asking for their release from illegal custody. She was not permitted to see her sons and was threatened; being told that she would be kidnapped like her sons if she persisted. Because she could not recover her sons herself, she has now petitioned her case to several federal officials in the hopes that her sons can be released, and that charges will be filed against the secret agency that took her children. She has written to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the Chief Justice of Sindh High Court, the General Inspector of Sindh, and filed a petition under article 199 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. There was a peaceful demon-
stration that took place July 17th protesting this incident at the Hatri bypass Hyderabad and another demonstration was held in the Sakrand District. The former however was broken up by baton wielding police and rangers who wounded many women and children in the process. “PAKISTAN: A student leader was extrajudicially killed in a fake encounter conducted by the state intelligence agencies” The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the extrajudicial killing of a student leader by persons from the intelligence agencies. A student leader, Afzal Panhwar, who remained in the custody of the security agencies for one year, was again arrested and within some hours he was shot dead by plain clothed persons believed to be from the secret agencies. He was a leader of the Jeay Sindh Student Federation (JSSF) affiliated with the JSMM, a
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nationalist organization striving for the independence of the Sindh province from Pakistan. During his first detention he was interrogated by Military Intelligence (MI) and Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) on charges of placing bombs on the railway track and on the second occasion he was again abducted on the same charges.
before his extrajudicial killing he suffered a kidnap attempt by the beast-like organizations, the ISI and MI. He was seriously injured in the attempt but managed to save himself from being returned to the hell of the torture cells. The following morning he got his statement recorded in the Press Club of Hydrabad, saying he had security reservations about the ISI and MI, as he had suffered a kidnap attempt for the second time the previous night. He, in his statement made it clear before the press club that his life was under threat and the Pakistani agencies, the ISI and MI wanted to kill him. At that time he applied to international human rights organizations to take some action against the uninterrupted brutality being perpetrated against him.
Mr. Afzal Ali Panhwar, the son of Munawar Ali Panhwar, a student of M.sc. Biochemistry, Sindh University, Jamshoro and resident of Allama I. I. Qazi hostel block, filed a constitutional petition, number 863 of 2011 on May 11, 2011, seeking the provision of all student facilities according to the catalogue and student's activities calendar 2011 (STAGS) and the expulsion of police personnel from the student hostels of the university. For further details, please find here the Urgent -image from tribune.com.pk Appeal Case about his disappearance in 2011. Afzal remained in the custody of the MI and ISI for almost one year during which time he was tortured severely. He suffered kidney damage and contracted tuberculosis. He was arrested by police and plain clothed persons on June 26, 2011 from the Hyder Chowk, near Rabia plaza, a crowded market place, at 6.00 pm when he was returning from the university. On June 12, 2012, after unbearable physical as well as mental torture which took place during the period of one year (352 days), he was found in terrible condition in a garbage dump in Dadu city of Sindh, where his captors had left him. After his release he underwent several months of medical treatment. Mr. Afzal was elected vice chairperson of the Jeay Sindh Student Federation and four months
On 15 August 2013, Mr. Afzal Panhwar was again abducted by plain clothed persons in the same jeep with no registration plate and was then brutally put to death in a fake encounter in Kotri city, Dadu district. It was announced as an encounter with police when attempting to attack a train. However, the weapon which was fired at the train was an AK47, and the weapon which the police revealed in the encounter with Afzal with is a 32 caliber pistol. On August 16, the whole of Sindh province remain aggrieved against the killing of this innocent student.(1) "PAKISTAN: A student leader was extrajudicially killed in a fake encounter conducted by the state intelligence agencies." www.humanrights.asia. Asian Human Rights Commission, 22 august 2013. Web. 6 Sep 2013. <http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAU-024-2013>.
SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION
Nawaz Sharif Must Pay Attention to the Plight of Pakistan’s Minorities By Kamana Mathur Nawaz Sharif, after eight years in exile following his ousting by General Pervez Musharraf in a military coup, became Pakistan’s Prime Minister for the third time this June. His priority, according to Mr. Sharif says, is to bolster Pakistan’s stagnant economy. One of the ways he hopes to do this is by improving ties with India, its democratic neighbor. Mr. Sharif surely realizes, however, that he must first address the rampant corruption, greed, and violence against women and minorities that are part of Pakistan’s current socio-political landscape. Mr. Sharif cannot and must not ignore the widespread violence and extortion expressed against religious minorities. He must take steps to address the rape, abduction, and forced conversion of Hindu and Christian girls, and the use of the infamous Blasphemy laws to intimidate and terrorize minorities in many parts of Pakistan. In order for economic progress to occur, the streets must be safe and the workforce educated. Men and women must be able to come out of the shadows and pursue educational and economic opportunities without having fear for their lives. Only then can a nation prosper. Discrimination and violence against religious and ethnic minorities is part of Pakistan’s legacy, but it has now reached epic proportions. In April 2013, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom warned that the risk to Pakistan's minorities is at a critical level. According to the Human Rights Watch, living conditions for Pakistan’s non-Muslims have drastically deteriorated. Many in Pakistan still want to believe that the situation is not as bad as it is made out to be. A large part of this denial stems from the efforts of the state and elected politicians to hide, rather than improve, the situation. For example, in the last five years, the incidents of abduction and conversion of Hindu girls in Sindh have risen alarmingly. Official data, however, shows that these incidents have decreased, primarily because people are afraid to report them, according to Ravi Davani, the secretary general of All Pakistan. Hindu Panchayat
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“Firstly, families of the girls now hardly approach the police. Even if they do, the policemen promise help only if the family remains silent,” he says. “The policemen in turn are pressured by the locally influential landlords to keep the incident under wraps; the landlords are told to do the same by the elected representative of the area,” he adds. “No one wants these incidents to get out anymore. They are too embarrassing for the country.” One particularly horrifying case involved a Christian girl who was re-abducted by two Muslim men in the Punjab Province. She was taken away by the thugs, brutally gang raped and beaten until she agreed to sign papers saying that she was married to her rapist. She endured eight months of inhumane sadistic rape, emotional abuse, and all manners of torment before she managed to escape. She was only 12 years old. Her family contacted the police about her abduction, but as is typical for Pakistan’s Muslim dominated law enforcement, absolutely no action was taken to find her. After the young girl called to inform her parents about her escape, they contacted the police. The police refused to register the case, insisting the young girl had signed a “legal” document stating she was married to a Muslim and asked that she be returned to her “husband.” The family had no recourse and lives in hiding from both the Islamists who gang raped their daughter and the police that want to return her to her rapists. According to the Pakistan Christian Post, more than 1,800 Christian and Hindu girls were abducted, gang raped, beaten, and/or forced to sign conversion papers in 2010. The case of Rinkle Kumari, an upper class Hindu girl, who was allegedly kidnapped by the thugs of the ruling PPP Parliamentarian Mian Mithu and forcibly married to his son generated significant media attention because of the high profile of the abductors. Her family sought justice in the court system, but Rinkle was ordered to go back to her husband. Fearing for the safety of her family should she refuse, Rinkle complied. Incidents of violence against the Hindu and Christian minorities and religious fanaticism abound. Under the guise of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law, nine Christian nurses in a Karachi hospital were given poisonous tea by some colleagues because they dared to eat lunch during
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Unfortunately, for poor Sindhi Hindus, who are denied access to colleges and sometimes even a basic education, paying this price is often impossible. Those Hindus who chose to remain in Pakistan post-1947, some of them wealthy landowners and businessmen, found themselves blackmailed, stripped of their land and wealth, their daughters abducted, raped, and/or forcibly made the third or fourth wife of a feudal Muslim by conversion to Islam.
-image from ahmadiyyatimes.blogspot.com
the month Ramadan. No arrests were made.
of
In another incident of unchecked mob violence, Christians living in Gojra were attacked by a mob that burned down more than 40 homes and several churches in August 2009. The mob then burned an entire Christian family to death inside their home. The police stood by as the mob “took revenge” for an act of blasphemy allegedly committed a few days earlier when a Christian wedding was held in the town. Witnesses and media reports recount how a raging mob, several thousand strong and armed with clubs, automatic weapons and incendiary chemicals, ransacked the Christian houses, forcing their occupants to run for safety. The mistake that Hameed Masih’s family made was that they refused to leave their home and resisted when the attackers came to burn down their house. This enraged the mob further, so they shot Hameed and bolted the gate so that no one could escape, then set the house on fire. Six people, including two women and one child, were burned alive along with all the household furniture, utensils, family photos and other valuables. Four years later, a government-appointed commission that investigated the case came up with a troubling finding: the allegations of blasphemy that had triggered the attack were baseless. But no one was prosecuted. Although Pakistan is home to almost 7 million Hindus, they form only 5.5% of the population and are concentrated primarily in the impoverished province of Sindh. In order to survive as a Hindu minority in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, one must be able to pay “protection money” to Islamic fundamentalist groups and their feudal patrons.
This violence has led to the large-scale exodus of Hindus seeking refuge in neighboring India. Thousands of Hindus have fled Pakistan in recent years. In March alone, over 80 families migrated from Pakistan to Bijwasan near Delhi in India. But they fear that they may be sent back to Pakistan after their visa term expires. “We do not want to go back to Pakistan as life is hell for minorities there. Hindu women are raped, kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam. They do anything they want to do with us,” said Sitaram who has come from Qasimabad with 17 other members of his family. Another Hindu migrant from Sindh, Lakshmi (55) said their stay in India may be illegal but they have no option but to live there. “There is nothing left for us in Pakistan. Their society has no tolerance for minorities. Hindus, Christians and Sikhs are forced to live in inhuman conditions,” she said, adding that women and girls are particularly vulnerable. A weeping Lakshmi described the incident that triggered their escape from Pakistan: “It was evening time and four Muslim men barged into my friend and neighbor’s house as they wanted to kidnap her 12-year-old daughter. When the girl’s mother and I resisted, they put a gun to our heads and threatened to kill us if we did not let go of the child. Then they did what they had to do. We were helpless.” In response to the growing exodus of Hindus, Pakistan’s National Assembly instituted a panel to study the issue. The panel recommended making forced conversions to Islam illegal. Their report held local police officers, tribal chiefs and politicians responsible for not helping minorities recover their
SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION
kidnapped family members. Other reforms suggested were to raise the age of marriage of Hindu girls to 18 and allow registration of Hindu marriages so that married couples could provide legal proof of marriage. However, little progress has been made and Nawaz Sharif’s new Government has thus far not demonstrated an intention to deal with these issues. One reason for this suppression and forced conversion of non-Muslims is the belief that they are inferior and evil beings who must be converted to Islam or abused and killed if they refuse. Hatred of non-Muslims is inculcated in young Pakistanis from a very young age through the school curriculum, which teaches hatred and intolerance of non-Muslims. Social Studies textbooks and Urdu media portray Hindus as enemies of Pakistan and Muslims. Hindu temples are closed, vandalized, or turned into schools or hotels. In June 2012, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, stressed during her visit to Islamabad that Pakistan’s commitment to universal primary education must be accompanied by reform of the school curricula to better promote tolerance with regard to religious minorities. As a result of this institutionalized intolerance, it is difficult for victims of discrimination to obtain legal help. Anyone daring to complain or raise their voice against this injustice is subject to threats, intimidation, and even loss of life. Even when the Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer was assassinated when he dared to call for a reform of Pakistan’s blasphemy law, the authorities found it difficult to find a prosecutor and a judge willing to take the case for fear of the repercussions. Judge Pervez Ali Shah who eventually heard the case has since fled Pakistan due to threats to his own life. Press censorship and a crackdown on those who dare to protest further boosts religious intolerance and violence. The murder of Salman Taseer and others who dared to raise their voice against injustice sent a very clear message -- remain silent or pay dearly. At least
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seven Pakistani journalists were allegedly murdered this year alone for standing up for minority rights. Some journalists have fled the country to avoid harassment and threats to their lives. Finally, the ruling party’s inability to control terrorism and terrorist activity has resulted in a further radicalization of the nation’s impoverished regions in which most minorities live. Radical elements incentivize rape, violence, abduction, and mistreatment of Pakistan’s religious minorities, all in the name of Islam. Unless Mr. Sharif is able to control these radical elements and forge a legal system that is able to root out religious violence and discrimination, Pakistan’s minorities will have no choice but to accept the torture and abuse or flee the country. Nawaz Sharif claims he wants Pakistan’s economic prosperity. The time is ripe for the Obama Administration, the media, NGOs, and Pakistani Americans to put pressure on his government to do more than pay lip service to the needs of the nation’s minorities. We must insist that he take concrete steps to end religious intolerance and violence, check the growing radical elements, and give Pakistan’s minorities the chance to live without fear in the land they call home. If he does not, economic prosperity shall remain a distant dream.
SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION
Phone: 202-496-5300
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The Sindhi American Political Action Committee (SAPAC) is an organization which works to raise public awareness about issues relating to Sindh and the Sindhi people throughout the world. SAPAC emphasizes the significant link between the Sindh region and US national interests. For this purpose, SAPAC aims to advocate on behalf of the Sindhis and to positively influence American policies toward Sindh.
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The information and views set out in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of SAPAC.