POLITICIAN THREATENED, AS DEFENDS MINORITIES
Regional parliamentarian Saleem Khursheed Khokhar has received death
threats over his calls for Hindu women and girls to be protected from
abduction and forced conversion to Islam.
Saleem Khursheed Khokhar, a Christian, is a member of Pakistan’s
Sindh Provincial Assembly and President of the Sindh chapter of the All
Pakistan Minorities Alliance. On 18 April, after Supreme Court hearings
into the possible forced conversion and forced marriage of a Hindu
woman, Saleem Khokhar spoke to the media criticising the abduction and
forced conversion of women from religious minority communities. Two days
later, he received a threatening text message saying that Pakistan had
been created only for Muslims and only Muslims could live there
peacefully, and no one else would be allowed to do so. This is the
latest in a series of threats he has received since last year for
defending minority rights. He is the most senior politician to receive
death threats for defending minority rights since the 2011
assassinations of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and Federal Minorities
Minister Shahbaz Bhatti.
Saleem Khokhar made a complaint about the threat, the day he
received it, to the Station House Officer at Clifton Police Station in
Karachi and a First Information Report (FIR) was registered. However,
Saleem Khokhar told Amnesty International, and wrote to senior
government officials, that the police had failed to investigate the
threat beyond registering the FIR. He believes the handful of security
guards assigned to him by the authorities are too few and have not been
adequately vetted to ensure they bear no animosity towards him, as they
are Muslim and he is Christian. In January 2011 Governor Taseer was
murdered by one of his own security guards who believed Taseer had
committed blasphemy by speaking out against laws that are often used to
target religious minorities. Minister Bhatti was also assassinated, over
his own criticism of the issue, in March 2011. Saleem Khokhar received
death threats last year for supporting Taseer and Bhatti.
Please write immediately in English, Urdu or your own language calling on the authorities to:
Urgently provide Saleem Khursheed Khokhar and his family with
adequate protection and ensure the guards they provide are properly
vetted;
Promptly investigate all threats received by Saleem Khokhar and his
family, and by anyone involved in campaigning against forced conversions
and forced marriages;
Bring to justice anyone responsible for threats and other abuse
against religious minorities, including forced conversion and forced
marriage, in trials which meet international standards of fairness.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 28 JUNE 2012 TO:
Prime Minister
Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani
Prime Minister House
Islamabad,
Pakistan
Fax: +92 51 922 1596 E-mail: secretary@cabinet. gov.pk
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister
Chief Minister, Sindh
Qaim Ali Shah
Interior Minister of Sindh
Dr. Zia ud Din Ahmed Road
Karachi, Sindh
Pakistan
Fax: +92 21 992 02000
Salutation: Dear Chief Minister Shah
Inspector General Sindh Police
Mushtaq Shah Sindh Police
Head Office I. I. Chundrigar Road
Karachi, Sindh
Pakistan
Fax: +92 21 99 212 051
E-mail: addl.igp_karachi@sindhpolice.gov.pk
Salutation: Dear Mr Shah
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
URGENT ACTION
POLITICIAN THREATENED, AS DEFENDS MINORITIES
ADditional Information
Hindu student Rinkle Kumari disappeared from her home in Mirpur
Mathelo, Sindh province on 24 February. Later that day her parents
received a phone call from a local Muslim cleric claiming Kumari had
converted to Islam. By that evening she had been married to a local
Muslim man. Relatives claim Kumari was forced into the conversion and
marriage. The Supreme Court intervened in the case and on 18 April
ordered that Kumari and two other girls allegedly forcibly converted and
married to Muslim men be allowed to decide whether they wished to
remain with their husbands or return to their families. It also ordered
that they be provided with police protection. They were kept in a
shelter during court proceedings but there were reports that they were
threatened by phone. All three women said they wished to remain with
their husbands. However, human rights activists criticized the Court for
expecting the women to make an immediate decision while ignoring the
general climate of fear and intimidation faced by religious minorities,
especially disadvantaged sections of the Hindu community in Sindh
province.
Saleem Khursheed Khokhar received the death threat after his
statements in support of Hindu relatives of the three women following
Supreme Court hearings on 18 April. The Kumari case received significant
media attention in Pakistan and highlighted the fears of human rights
abuse faced by Pakistan’s Hindu community. Along with the threat of
forced conversion and forced marriage faced by Hindu women, Hindu
traders have been targeted in a string of abductions for ransom in Sindh
and neighbouring Balochistan province. According to the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan, since 2011 up to 34 Hindus have been kidnapped
from Balochistan and a further 50 families have fled the province.
The Pakistan government has repeatedly failed to respect and
protect the human rights of religious minorities and those who have
defended their rights. Police frequently fail to sufficiently record and
investigate complaints, and justice is impeded by judicial bias against
religious minorities. In 2009, a year after coming to power, the
current government pledged to review “laws detrimental to religious
harmony.” But it fell silent after the assassinations of Governor of
Punjab Salmaan Taseer, and Federal Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti in
January and March 2011 respectively because of their criticism of
blasphemy laws that disproportionately target religious minorities.
Under Articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Pakistan is a state party,
everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion,
opinion and expression. Article 26 provides for equality of all people
before the law, without discrimination. Article 27 provides that members
of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities “shall not be denied the
right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy
their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use
their own language.” This article requires the state to take positive
measures to protect religious minorities against acts committed by the
state or by non-state actors.
Name: Saleem Khursheed Khokhar
Gender m/f: m
UA: 139/12 Index: ASA 33/004/2012 Issue Date: 17 May 2012
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA33/004/2012/en/d6af4ce8-875d-4e58-b4e9-709e97103ef2/asa330042012en.html
