Category: Pakistan

Pakistan: Police issue warrant for Bishop of Faisalabad and 128 other Christians of Gojra — in retaliation for complaints of incompetence in massacre

Pakistan: Police issue warrant for Bishop of Faisalabad and 128 other Christians of Gojra
— “The First Information Reports or FIRs were filed this week by the Punjab police against the Rt. Rev. John Samuel, the Church of Pakistan’s Bishop of Faisalabad and 28 other Christians, in retaliation for complaints of police incompetence in the wake of the attacks on Christians in the town of Gojra that left ten dead and destroyed three Churches and over 100 homes.”

Pakistan: Suspected “Honor Killing” of Pregnant Wife, Two Teenage Daughters

— Pakistan Daily Times: “Man kills pregnant wife, 2 daughters”
— “KARACHI: An unemployed man escaped after killing his pregnant wife and two daughters including an adopted niece on Sunday within the limits of Sarjani Town police station. Police officials suspect that the man killed them as an honour killing.”
— “The incident took place during the early morning hours at around 6:40 am at their house No 154 located at Abdul Raheem Goth. Police discovered the bodies after the culprit’s brother, namely Manzoor who resides in their neighbourhood informed them about the incident. ‘Manzoor informed us an hour after the incident took place,’ said SHO Ghayyur Akhtar. The bodies were then shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities.”
— “The deceased included Wazira Bibi, 38, wife of Abdul Rasheed, her daughter Aasma, 14 and adopted daughter Aasfa, 16, daughter of Ghulam Rasool. According to the initial investigation, police officials suspect that the culprit Rasheed killed them as an honour killing. SHO Ghayyur Akhtar said that the man shot his wife first as he probably thought that she had illicit relations with someone and then he shot the girls when they tried to save their mother. A repeater gun was used in the killing and all the three victims died on the spot, the officer added. The woman was nine months pregnant and three of his sons and three of his daughters were at a relative’s house when the incident took place. The officer further said that the 45-year-old culprit hails from Panu Aqil, Punjab and is a driver by profession but was unemployed since a long time. Earlier, he had been arrested and locked up over domestic violence after he shot his sister, who was wounded in the attack.”

Pakistan Christian Post: “Honor killing of 40 women in month of May, 2009, in Sindh”

Pakistan Christian Post: “Honor killing of 40 women in month of May, 2009, in Sindh”
— Pakistan Christian Post reports:
— “Hyderabad: August 20, 2009. (PCP report) Mr. Abbas Kassar, Coordinator of Peace and Human Rights Trust, Sindh, have issued an alarming reports on situation of women in Sindh, province of Pakistan. The report says that in month of May 2009, in Sindh province, 40 women were killed under honor killing, 20 women were gang raped, 43 women were kidnapped and 3 women were buried without coffin. The report elaborates that 175 men were also killed including killed in honor. The PHRT is a London based human right orgnization have chapters in Pakistan to watch human right situation.”
— “Mr. Kassar, a senior journalist and Coordinator of PHRT term this report “The human rights situation in Sindh is very alarming. Peace and Human Rights Trust has made a report for the month of May while reports of June and July is also ready to release”
— “This is meant to open the eyes of rulers that they have failed to protect human rights of people especially of women.”
— “The Peace and human rights trust is non-governmental and non-political organization with its head office in London where its chairman former prisoner of conscience Mr Mukhtar Rana lives. He is also former speaker of Amnesty International. PHRT strives holding dignity and respect for human rights which campaign internationally recognized human rights to be respected and protected anywhere. PHRT work to prevent and stop abuses of human rights including rights of women, children and downtrodden people and demand justice for those whose rights have been violated. PHRT, in its 4 years campaign, has also liberated around 2500 bonded peasants from the private prisons of landlords in Pakistan. We believe that there are around 1.7 million bonded peasants in Sindh alone. We are working for rehabilitation of liberated bonded peasants numbering around 27000 living in 7 Hari camps around Hyderabad city.”
— “Peace and Human Rights Trust, Sindh Chapter has issued report on human rights situation for the month of May 2009. According to report, 215 persons including 40 women were killed under honor killing in the province in May 2009. 20 women/girls were gang raped, noses of 2 women were chopped off, 3 were burnt with acid throwing and head hair of 3 were shaved.3 slain women were burnt without coffins.”
— “Despite passage of Women Protection Bill by parliament, state took no step to provide protection to women and they continued to be killed, raped, humiliated and meted out inhuman treatment and degraded. Despite obligation of Pakistan under CEDAW state failed to prevent violation against women rather it is met with government silence and apathy.”

Pakistan: U.S. Envoy Richard Holbrooke meets with Pakistan Extremist Fazl ur-Rehman “defender of Taliban interests”

Reuters reports on U.S. Envoy Richard Holbrooke meeting with Pakistan Extremist Fazl-ur-Rehman; according to Global Security, Maulana Fazlur Rehman is a well-known “defender of the interests of the Taliban in the grand Deobandi alliance mostly spearheaded by the jihadi militia.”
— aka Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman aka Fazlur Rehman aka Fazl aka Fazal ur Rehman

— August 19, 2009 – Reuters: “Obama reaches out to Islamist parties in Pakistan”

— February 19, 2009 – NWFP: Sharia Law deal with president, PM consent: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman

— February 9, 2009: Muslim Ummah and Madrassahas are on hit list of America:  JUI-F’s Fazl
—- “He also urged upon the international community to give the
Islamic countries their due right of implementation of Islamic Shariah in their own ideological countries.”

— In January 2008, Maulana Fazlur Rehman (aka Maulana Fazl) stated that he would continue to lead “efforts for the implementation of a true Islamic system” in Pakistan and cited his “achievements” in the NWFP, and promotion of Sharia.

— On November 20, 2007, U.S. Ambassador Patterson met with Taliban promoter Maulana Fazlur Rehman, as part of promoting “free and fair elections.”

— Jeffrey Imm research: The leader of the Pakistan political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Maulana Fazl ur-Rehman, was a political ally of Benazir Bhutto and the PPP of which Mr. Zardari is co-chairman. According to Tahir Amin in his “Case Study on Pakistan’s Recognition of Taliban”, under the Benazir Bhutto administration: “The Deeni Madressahs led by the JUI (F) provided the manpower. Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, a close ally of the PPP who had been made the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of Foreign Affairs, also played a key role in garnering the support for the Taliban in the corridors of power. Various Pakistani governmental organisations like the PTCL, Railway, PIA and Ministry of Communications provided the infrastructural assistance to the Taliban. The ISI began to provide military supplies, logistical support, technical know how and the extensive knowledge of the Afghan situation.”

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— August 19, 2009 – Reuters: “Obama reaches out to Islamist parties in Pakistan”

U.S. President Barack Obama has started reaching out to some of Pakistan’s most fervent Islamist and anti-American parties, including one that helped give rise to the Taliban, trying to improve Washington’s image in the nuclear-armed state.

Obama’s special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, is initiating dialogue between the United States and religious parties previous administrations had largely shunned, both sides said.

“The purpose is to broaden the base of American relations in Pakistan beyond the relatively narrow circle of leaders Washington has previously dealt with,” explained Vali Nasr, senior adviser to Holbrooke.

John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Bush presidency, questioned Holbrooke’s timing for trying to engage Taliban sympathizers on the eve of elections in neighboring Afghanistan, where U.S. forces are battling the hardline Islamic group.

“As a general proposition, democracy in Pakistan is fragile enough now that negotiating with people that some on the democratic side of the Pakistani spectrum would think themselves are terrorists strikes me as fairly risky,” Bolton said.

“What we ought to be doing is making sure that our ties with the military are strong because the gravest risk is radical penetration of the military.”

At one of this week’s sessions, Liaqat Baloch, a top member of the religious, right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party, told Holbrooke he welcomed the new administration’s public change in tone toward Muslims around the world.

But Baloch said he was disturbed to see “no change in practice” in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where Obama has stepped up military operations against the Taliban on both sides of the border.

Holbrooke invited Jamaat-e-Islami, whom some U.S. officials compare to the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, to visit the heavily guarded American embassy compound in Islamabad, seeking to dispel long-running rumors that thousands of U.S. Marines would be based there.

“NEW ERA”

Holbrooke rejected the party’s complaints about a Western “assault” on Islam, saying “that could not be further from the truth” with Obama, who has roots in the religion, now in the White House.

Fazl-ur-Rehman, whose Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Islam party was active in rousing support for the Taliban in 1990s, also got an audience with Holbrooke and his team.

Rehman denies al Qaeda’s responsibility for the September 11, 2001, attacks, and once warned that if U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, no American in Pakistan would be safe.

In more recent years, however, Rehman’s relationship with the Taliban has grown uneasy, and he has publicly supported negotiations between the U.S.-backed government in Kabul and the Islamist group.

“His hands aren’t exactly clean,” Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation said of Rehman. “He is associated with the Taliban.”

But she described his party as a legitimate political force that has met with U.S. officials in the past.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari praised Holbrooke’s meetings with Islamist parties as “a new era” aimed at promoting reconciliation and dialogue instead of “the violent mindset.”

“We need to help Obama. He’s a breath of fresh air to the world,” Zardari told reporters traveling with Holbrooke.

Dressed in colorful turbans and traditional robes, most of the parliamentarians and clerics representing religious parties as well as tribes appeared to relish access to Obama’s point-man for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“It’s good he’s listening,” said parliamentarian Munir Khan Orakzai of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas — ethnic Pashtun lands on the Afghan border — after pressing Holbrooke for a bigger share of development aid dollars.

Holbrooke, who has been meeting mainly Pakistan’s political and military establishment, called his nearly hour-long session with Baloch’s Jamaat-e-Islami “the most intellectually sustained debate I’ve ever had in this country.”

But immediately after their meeting, Baloch and his delegation took to the streets, leading a protest against U.S. policy in Pakistan and the region.

Canadian Pakistani Christians hold awareness rally on persecution in Pakistan

Canadian Pakistani Christians hold awareness rally on persecution in Pakistan
— Pakistan Christian Post reports:
— “Scarborough: August 19, 2009. (PCP) Despite the Scorching heat of Sunday noon, temperatures rising to 32c the determined friends of Christian Minority of Pakistan held an awareness rally on August 16, 2009 to protest the Acts of Evil by the hands of Muslim Extremists in Scarborough, Canada at the doorsteps of St. Barnabas Church which holds 3 services each Saturday and Sunday which very much get attended by 500 to 700 worshipers each service.”

Pakistan: Islamic Televangelist blames Gojra massacre of Christians on “Western conspiracy”

— Dawn reports:
— “Hardly a week had passed after the shameful attacks on the lives and livelihood of the besieged Christian community of Gojra, that a well-known Islamic televangelist appeared on his show on a local TV channel and freely exhibited the audacity to explain this attack by vicious Islamic sectarian organisations as a conspiracy by the West to make Pakistanis question the contentious Blasphemy Laws.”
— “First of all, as usual, before spouting this claptrap, such TV hosts have absolutely no substantive proofs ever to back their demagogic finger-pointing rituals.”
— “But utmost is the fact that the tongue-wagging gentleman had himself been embroiled last year in a stunning controversy where he was directly accused by his former party, the MQM, and some bold journalists, for initiating and encouraging attacks against Punjab’s Ahmadiyya community through his show.”
— “Thus, what moral right does this highly animated fellow has to even address the issue of the attacks in Gojra, let alone offer bizarre and thoroughly unreasonable theories, pointing fingers at the usually elusive and unsubstantiated conglomerate of conspirators?”
— “His self-righteous and delusional take on the said issue must have come as a hurtful bolt of insensitivity to those who lost their loved ones in the insane fires of fanaticism that almost completely burned down the Christian community in Gojra.”

Pakistan – ICC Report: “Pregnant Christian Dragged Naked through Pakistani Police Station”

ICC Report: “Pregnant Christian Dragged Naked through Pakistani Police Station”

— “Miscarries after Police Arrest Her for Theft without Evidence, Hold Her Three Days”

— “Washington, D.C. (August 17, 2009) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that a pregnant Christian woman miscarried on July 26 after police beat her and dragged her naked through their police station in the Gujrat District of Punjab, Pakistan. Police had arrested her and a Muslim woman after their employer accused them of theft, but police did not even touch the Muslim woman.”

— “The woman, Farzana Bibi, worked as a maid in the house of a wealthy Muslim. During a wedding held at the house, some jewelry was stolen from some of the landlord’s female relatives. The police were called, and when they arrived at the scene they arrested two maids: Farzana and a Muslim woman named Rehana. Nazir Masih, Farzana’s husband, said, ‘Police registered a fake theft case against my wife and Rehana without any proof.'”

— “Nazir went on to say that the police tortured his wife even though she told them she was pregnant. He told ICC, ‘Sub-Inspector Zulfiqar and Assistant Sub-Inspector Akhter subjected her to intense torture. They stripped off her clothes and dragged her naked around the compound of Cantonment Area Police Station in Kharian. They humiliated and tortured my wife, but did not do anything to Rehana.'”

— “Although Farzana complained of severe pain, the police ignored her pleas and detained her for another two days. When her condition became critical, the police finally transferred her to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Kharian, where she miscarried.”

— “Nazir filed a report with the District Police Officer in Gujrat, detailing the abuse his wife received and her miscarriage. The District Office initiated an investigation after receiving the report, withdrawing the false accusations and suspending officers Zulfiqar and Akhter.”

— “The authorities have pledged to punish all those responsible. Please pray that God would comfort Farzana and Nazir and that justice would be carried out. Please also call your Pakistani embassy and ask them to defend the rights of Christians.”

— “Jeremy Sewall, ICC’s Advocacy Director, said, ‘While we were not able to confirm whether Farzana was innocent of robbing her employers, it is absolutely unacceptable for police to humiliate her and abuse her so severely that she lost her child. The fact that the Muslim woman accused of the same thing was at least treated like a human being just proves again that if you are not a Muslim in Pakistan, you have no rights. The government should go beyond suspending the two officers guilty of this crime and try them for manslaughter.'”