Geneva (Switzerland): Kashmiri Socio-political activist & Human Rights Defender, Javed Ahmad Beigh blasts Pakistan for its horrendous treatment of Pakistan’s minorities especially Hindu & Christian minorities at the United Nations forum in Geneva, Switzerland.
He spoke about the plight of Pakistan’s Hindu and Christian minorities at the ongoing 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting currently ongoing at the United Nations Office (UNO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
In his passionate speech, Javed said that Hindus and Christians in Pakistan continue to face repression from the State, its institutions, and religious extremist forces.
He said that Hindus are the largest religious minority in Pakistan, numbering about 3.8 million or 1.6 % of the total population of Pakistan, but due to the rise of extremism, violent incidents against Hindus have increased manifold in the four decades in Pakistan.
He added that young Hindu girls are repeatedly kidnapped and forced into marriages with men from the majority community who are often twice their own age, and coerced to convert. He further said that there are regular attacks on Hindu temples and Pakistani authorities do little to stop such horrendous attacks.
He also pointed out that to escape the religious persecution and perpetual threats to life and liberty discrimination, there has been a steady increase in the influx of Hindu migrants to India. He drew attention to the fact that according to the Indian government, there are 4,000 to 5,000 Pakistani Hindus living in India on extended visas.
With respect to the plight of Pakistan’s Christian minority, he said that Christians make up roughly 3.3 million or 1.3 % of the total population of Pakistan.
He also pointed out that Christians are derogatorily referred to as “Churas”, slur by the majority community of Pakistan, who consider Christians as “dirty”.
He added that hundreds of members of Pakistan’s Christian community have become victims of false blasphemy cases which carry the death penalty. He further said that Christians in Pakistan are seen as representatives of western powers and subjected to regular violent attacks by religious extremists. He highlighted the fact that hundreds of Christians have been killed in various massacres that have taken place in different Churches.
He summed up his speech by calling out the comity of nations and urged that the world must hold Pakistan accountable for the continuing miserable plight of its minorities especially Hindu and Christian minorities and the religious persecution to which these communities are subjected to.
