Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that three Christian women were severely beaten and paraded naked in the village of Kasur, Punjab province, by armed men and a local landlord on the excuse that goats owned by the women entered the landlord’s fields and claimed that they damaged the standing crops. Under pressure of the henchmen of the ruling party PML-N the local police filed a case against the Christians. Conversely they have not acted upon the complaint of physical abuse filed by the Christians. The Christian community is under threat as a member of National Assembly from the ruling party PML-N is forcing the police to act against them.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Three Christian women, Ms. Arshad Bibi, Ms.Sajida Bibi and Ms.Sauriya Bibi, the daughter-in-laws of a Christian, Mr. Sadiq Masih, a resident of village Sereser Chak No.21 Kasur, a district of Punjab, were brutally beaten and then paraded naked by armed men employed by Muhammad Munir the son of Abdul Rasheed, a landlord that has the support of the ruling party, PML-N. The incident occurred on the night of June 3 after 11 pm when the male members of the family were attending to their jobs. The men, armed with weapons and sticks, were able to enter the house by scaling the boundary wall and unlocking the gate from the inside. At that time the women were sleeping in the house along with their in-laws Sadiq Masih (73) (father-in-law) and Ms. Rani Bibi (70) (mother-in-law).

The mob, lead by Muhammad Munir along with others, Abrahim, Muhammad Rafique and their sons, Ahmed, Asif, Abid, Wassem, Waqas and Shabir and three more unknown persons, entered the house. When the attackers invaded the house they started looking for the sons of Sadiq Masih, checking all the rooms and throwing their belongings about. When they could not find his sons they started beating the daughters-in-law.

The party workers then took the three Christian women out into the street where the lights were on and tore their clothes off. They then started shouting to attract the attention of the people nearby to let them see the extent of the revenge and power of the landlord. Nobody dared to stop them as the attackers were holding weapons. Due to the victim’s screaming and shouting some elderly people of the village came out and put their turbans on the feet of the attackers as a sign of high respect and honour. After this the attackers released the women but threatened the villagers that if they complained about the incident they will face more trouble.

While this was going on somebody called ’15’, the number of the Police Emergency Center and after much time the officers arrived. Rather than take action against the attackers the police tried to calm down the mob which was protesting against the incident.

The cause of the incident was apparently that on two occasions some goats belonging to the Christians had entered the fields of the landlord, Munir, who claimed that they had damaged his crops. As the goats belonged to the Christians Munir confiscated them.

On the morning of the incident Mr. Shaukat the son of Sadiq Masih approached Munir in the company of his sisters-in–law and requested him to release their goats. Munir refused to do so and stared beating him. Munir slaped him many times across the face and cursed him. When Shoukat, in retaliation, slapped him back Munir became furious and threatened him, demanding to know, “How dare a Christian slap him and he has to face the consequences”. It was this incident that lead to the revenge attack. At this time they also injured Mr. Sadiq Masih who received several injuries to his leg.

On June 4, Advocate Sardar Mushtaq Gill, National Director at LEAD (Legal Evangelical Association Development) was informed by the Rev. Saleem Gill to give legal aid and assistance to the harassed family. Advocate Gill visited the victims and collected the details of the case and approached the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Pattoki for the registration of the case. Consequently an FIR was registered against the landlord and his henchmen under numbers 231/13 of Section of 452, 354, 337/FI, 149,148 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The victims received a certificate from the Government of Punjab Health Department mentioning the injuries which they suffered but the police did not take action against the perpetrators, either for the humiliation of parading the women naked or the violence perpetrated on them. Instead, the police quickly filed a case against the Christians under FIR 234/13 under Section 440, 379, 148, 149 of the PPC on behalf of the landlord. This came as no surprise to the victims as it is a common practice of the local Muslims to create pressure on the Christian community to withdraw FIRs.

One member of the National Assembly, Mr. Rana Ishaq, from the ruling party, the PML-N of Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef, is forcing the police not to act against the perpetrators as they are also supporters of the ruling party.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

In Pakistan minorities are living under fear and they are discriminated on the basis of the religion and culture. They are mostly victims of bounded labour, torture, rape, charges of blasphemy and many others. They are considered lower caste or second class people.

In the Punjab province, which has been ruled by the PML-N for the last five years, the Christians and their settlements have remained under attack and hundreds of their houses were burned so henchmen of ruling party can grab the land. In the past five years more than 100 Christians were killed or burned alive and more than two dozen residential areas were attacked. Their social rights are snatched by the perpetrators and politically they are powerless.

Muslim fundamentalist and their groups including the ruling party do not respect rights of the religious minorities so they can expect little support from the police. They are also unable to get legal assistance. The lives and properties of these poor people are not protected in many areas of Pakistan. The government constantly fails to provide them their basic rights and protection. When victims lodge FIRs against perpetrators they are threatened with the help of police which explains why the avoid lodging FIR against any crime.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write the letters to the following authorities calling on them to initiate an inquiry into the matter of parading nakedly the three christen women case which was allegedly done by the landlords and workers of the ruling party of PML-N of Kasur District. Please urge them to prosecute the local police officers for not providing protection to the women and also to the Christians. The police must be tried for not following the law. The government must take action to stop the discrimination of the minorities in Pakistan and immediately pay compensation to the victims.

The AHRC is writing separate letters to the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief and the Independent Expert on minority issues

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