Hindus in Pakistan: A Survey of Human Rights, 2020
Human rights and religious freedom conditions continued to deteriorate at an unprecedented rate in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan during 2019-2020. Pakistan’s widespread violation of human rights and its tolerance of human rights violations by non-state actors demonstrate a blatant disregard for its obligations under international human rights norms. As a result, Pakistan remained on the U.S. State Department’s list of Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, for its “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom” against its religious minorities including Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Ahmadiyya Muslims, and Shia Muslims. (U.S. Department of State, 2018; Pompeo, 2019)
The blasphemy laws, restrictions on the Ahmadiyya Muslim faith, and forced conversions of Hindu, Christian, and Sikh girls particularly plagued religious minorities. According to Human Rights Watch’s 2019 Country Report on Pakistan, an estimated 1,000 Christian and Hindu women are abducted and forcibly converted to Islam every year, and the government does little to stop such incidents. (Human Rights Watch, 2019) Often, after being abducted, these girls are forcibly married to unknown men, raped, sold off, or forced into prostitution.
Moreover, the constitutional preference for Islam and religious identification laws institutionalized the discrimination and second-class status of minorities. Legislation requiring Compulsory courses on the Koran at all public universities in Punjab province was passed in 2020 and secondary school textbooks continued to include inflammatory content on religious minorities.
Hindus and other minorities remain enslaved by the bonded labor system, and are subjected to attacks on religious sites and the illegal occupation of temples, and other acts of intolerance at the hands of non-state actors with complicit or implicit support of government officials.
In order to escape these rampant religious freedom violations, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and Ahmaddiya Muslims have increasingly fled the country in the last several years. The annual influx of religious refugees from Pakistan, along with those from Afghanistan and Bangladesh, into India led to the passage of India’s Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019 to provide them with fast track citizenship.
Large-scale sectarian violence also continued as militant groups operated freely and targeted minorities, as well as minority Muslims sects with impunity. In September 2020, Sunni extremists and militant groups with links to the government and military led mass anti-Shia Muslim demonstrations of up to 30,000 people, accusing Shias of being heretics. (Shahid, 2020)
The Pakistani military establishment has long utilized many terrorist/militant groups and Islamists to both pursue its domestic political priorities as well as foment violence in India and Afghanistan. This led to a number of cross-border attacks in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistani sponsored terrorist groups, including the February 2019 attack by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Pulwama that killed over 40 Indian security personnel. (McDermott, 2019)
Subsequent to the Pulwama attack, Pakistan attempted to protect JeM leader, Maulana Azhar Masood, from censure at the United Nations and carried out an international propaganda campaign on Kashmir. Government officials, such as Prime Minister Imran Khan, further exacerbated tensions with India by unilaterally threatening nuclear war after India fully and democratically integrated Jammu and Kashmir into the Indian Union through the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution. (ANI, 2019)
Finally, the Pakistani military and government’s suppression of the civil and human rights of ethnic minorities continued unabated. Continue to read
