The UN has failed to acknowledge the rise of atrocities against Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs. Till this selectivity exists, the world can never truly foster a culture of peace, says KOUL JALALI
In yet another incident of human rights violations 11 Hazara coal miners in Baluchistan province of Pakistan were abducted by terrorists and killed recently. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for this heinous act and the relatives of the miners have refused to bury them till their demands for justice are met. The Hazaras are a Persian-speaking ethnic group whose homeland is Hazarajat in Central Afghanistan. In Pakistan they live mostly in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. They are Shia Muslims and in Pakistan they are suspected of loyalty towards Iran.
These latest atrocities have again drawn the attention of the global community towards the persistent killings of Hazaras and have been condemned widely. There have been protests at many places in Pakistan. Because of their somewhat Mongolian features the Hazaras are easily identifiable and in recent years thousands of them have been murdered in Pakistan. However nobody has been ever punished for these persistent ruthless crimes.
Atrocities against the minorities in Pakistan began soon after the country came into existence in 1947 but got intensified once Islamisation started there under General Zia-ul-Haq. Initially, persecution was mostly confined to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians. But later these rights violations got extended to the Shias, Ahmadiyyas, Sufis, Hazaras, Seraikis and other similar sects and groups living in different parts of Pakistan.
These persecutions assume the form of abductions, murders, mass murders, bombings, suicide bombings, forceful conversions to Islam, extrajudicial killings, threats of violence and killings on allegations of blasphemy that are mostly based on personal vendettas and religious bias. The motivating force behind atrocities against these minorities almost in all cases is faith. Whereas the Ahmadiyyas have been declared heretics long back, there is a deep religious divide between the majority Sunni population and the Shia minority.
The worst is that attacks on and desecration of places of worship of minorities have turned into recurring incidents. For instance, on December 31, 2020 a Hindu temple including the Samadhi of a religious leader in Karak District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were set on fire by a mob led by some clerics and supporters of radical Islamist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party (Fazal ur Rehman group). According to the police, 100 people including seven leading clerics were arrested. India lodged a strong protest against this act and sought strict action against the perpetrators of the crime.
This heinous incident draws attention to the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement arrived at between the then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan in New Delhi in April,1950. The Partition had resulted in exchange of populations between the two countries. Under the agreement, among other matters, minority rights in both the nations were confirmed and both the States set up their minority commissions. But seeing the plight of the minorities in Pakistan, it is obvious that the minority commissions have not worked.
Rejecting the Opposition’s criticism of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Indian Parliament in December 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah clearly stated that the pact has failed. He said that had the spirit of the agreement been followed by Pakistan there would have been no need to bring the Bill.
In any case, the obvious fact cannot be contended that after the Partition the population of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who lived in areas which later became a part of Pakistan has dwindled drastically whereas the population of Muslims who lived in areas which later became a part of the Indian Union has grown exponentially. The reasons for this are not far to seek. While in India rights and security of the minorities have been continuously and effectively safeguarded, Pakistan has persistently contravened the provisions of the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement through consistent neglect and persecution of members of minority communities. This is despite the fact that the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement required each country to ensure that its minorities enjoyed complete equality of citizenship with others and received treatment identical to that available to other nationals of their country.
In another such incident trampling on the rights of the minorities, ignoring the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution, the Pakistani Government decided to transfer the management of the Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara to a non-Sikh body. India strongly protested and the incident has been resented all over the world. In a speech at the UN session on ‘Culture of Peace’ in December 2020, the First Secretary to India’s Permanent Mission to the UN agreed with the fact that anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and anti-Christian acts need to be condemned but stated that UN resolutions on such important issues speak only of three Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He said that the august body has failed to acknowledge the rise of hatred and violence against Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs and referred to the shattering of the iconic Bamyan Buddhas by the Taliban in 2001 and the killing of 25 Sikh worshipers in a terrorist bomb attack on a Gurudwara in Kabul in March 2020. He said that in such resolutions these religions also need to be added to the list because till this selectivity exists, the world can never truly foster a culture of peace.
(The writer is a journalist, producer and director. The views expressed are personal.)
