GENEVA: Hundreds of Pakistani Christians, including women and children, living in Europe have held a protest march in Geneva to demand equal rights in Pakistan.

They raised their voice against the blasphemy law, forced conversion of Christian and Hindu girls and a lack of education.

Holding banners demanding “Stop Human Rights Violations Against Christians in Pakistan” and “Abolish Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan”, they started protest march from Palais Wilson, the headquarters of the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, and concluded it at Broken Chair, in front of the UN office in Geneva.

Robinson Asghar, a Pakistani Christian leader said, “Be it Christian persecution in Pakistan or any kind of persecution anywhere in the world, we condemn that. The main reason for persecution is blasphemy laws which are misused in Pakistan and the misuse of laws has naturally been a great concern for all Pakistanis and we are here to protest against that.”

Mario Silva, Former Member of Canadian Parliament said, “Christians have not been safe for many decades now in Pakistan. The Blasphemy Laws that came into place through section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code has really targeted all minority groups be it Christians, Hindus or Ahmadians, they have been targeted”.

“Before the change in Section 295, there were very few cases, at least 14 cases of people being targeted under Blasphemy law in Pakistan. Now, there are thousands of cases of the blasphemy law. It is designed to target minority group to force them to convert to Islam and to silence those who are preaching their faith,” he added.

Herve Juvin, the Member of European Parliament said, “Reducing the number of Christians in Pakistan is picking for itself. In the past few years, some 15 percent of Pakistani citizens from religious minorities – Christians, Shiites, and Hindus have now reduced to only 3 percent. They are leaving the country because of being discriminated against. They are persecuted, sometimes injured, sometimes killed. The situation is deteriorating every year”.

The US State Department’s newly released International Religious Freedom Report for 2018 stated that there are certain laws in Pakistan which it described as discriminatory regarding minorities.

Similarly, the Secretary of State designated Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, as amended, for having engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom, and announced a waiver of the sanctions that accompany designation as required in the important national.