HYDERABAD: June 18, 2014. (By Abbas Kassar) A member of Balochistan Assembly belonging to Christian minority Handery Masieh was shot dead by his guard in Quetta on Saturday,June 14,2014. Masieh was killed in same fashion by his guard as Punjab governor Salman Taseer 3 years ago also by his official guard. Taseer was killed because of his sympathy with Christian girl Asha Bibi who has been sentenced to death under blasphemy laws while Handery’s murder was ample proof of faith hate. Federal Minister Shabaz Bhatti a Christian was also killed in 2011 as he was reluctant on blasphemy law under which at least 17 people were at present on death row including Aisha Bibi and Rimsha Masih both physically retarded Christian girls On same day 2 Shia brothers Khizer Abbas and Hyder Abbas were also killed in Karachi. A week earlier 30 Shia Muslims were killed by terrorists at Balochistan-Iran border of Tuftan when Shia pilgrimage had returned from pilgrim of sacred places in Iran.. The attack took place at a time when ten buses carrying pilgrims came to Pakistan from Iran on conclusion of Ziyaraat journey and were parked outside hotel. Another group of another Shia Muslim devotee was waiting to go their homes as their movement has been restricted at Tuftan border due to security reasons. Increase in faith based violence in Pakistan has compelled Hindu, Sikh and Christian minorities to migrate to countries that are safer for them. Whatever the cause of the surge of violence and abuse, many Pakistani Hindus and Christians are feeling beleaguered and increasingly looking to get out. More than 100 families are leaving for India each month, rights groups’ say. Pakistan Christian Congress has mad appeal to UNO to ask India and other countries to provide asylum to Christian fleeing Pakistan. Hindus and Christians say their women are easy targets for rape or forced marriage. Temples are attacked and looted. Accusations of blasphemy, punishable by death, are increasingly being used to drive them from their homes, they say "The militant groups work with impunity as they enjoy support from the state functionaries. They cannot work without some level of support," said veteran rights campaigner I.A. Rehman director of HRCP. Many complain the problem has become worse since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is seen as more conservative and indulgent of Islamists than his predecessor, came to power last year The U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom said in a recent report that conditions in Pakistan had "hit an all-time low" and government had failed to adequately protect minorities and arrest perpetrators of crimes against them. "Pakistan is increasingly failing to protect its minorities for 2 broad reasons: principally, rising religious intolerance and the space ceded to violent ideologies," said Sherry Rehman, who was a government minister and ambassador to the United States under the previous Pakistani administration. Violent extremists also targeted Muslims who advocated tolerance and pluralism. There were scores of attacks on Sufi, Hindu, Ahmadiyya Muslim, Shia, and Christian gatherings and religious sites, resulting in numerous deaths and extensive damage. The government launched peace talks with the Taliban in February and rights activists fear that they and other militants have been emboldened by the talks to step up attacks on their minority-group enemies. Even religious scholars from other sects of Islam like Mufti Usman Yar were targeted to death in Karachi. The terrorists have also blown up the shrines of many Soofi Aulia including Rehman Baba in KPK, Dargah Ayub Shah Karachi, Dargah Mehrban Ali Shah in Karachi. Dargah Pir Wadhai in Islamabad. In that sense terrorists who own every blast to be committed by them appear to be not only enemies of Pakistan but also of Islam yet present govt gives them space and time to strike by initiating dialogue with them. 5000 HINUDUS FLEE PAKISTAN EVERY YEAR: Around 5,000 Hindus migrate from Pakistan to India and other countries every year due to religious persecution, ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) lawmaker Ramesh Kumar Wankwani told the Pakistani National Assembly in its last session. “During the last two months, six incidents of religious desecration happened in Sindh province alone. In all incidents, religious books of Hindu minority and their places of worship were burnt,” said Wankwani, who also heads the Pakistan Hindu Council. He said that the government had so far neither made arrests nor taken action against any extremist group involved in the attacks. “No one from the minority community feels safe in Pakistan,” he said while commenting on the law and order situation in the country. He blamed the government for failing to control frequent attacks against Hindus and maintained it was the community’s constitutional right to practice its religion freely in Pakistan. “But the rights of Hindus have never remained a priority here. The problems of Hindus are multiplying in Pakistan instead of decreasing. Are we not part? 5 DEAD BODIES OF MEGHWARS MISSING FROM GRAVES IN JAN 2014 IN UMERKOT: Five bodies were found missing from their graves when a group of Meghwar community members visited the graveyard near Rohalwai in Umerekot. Thano Meghwar, whose minor son was buried in the graveyard 2 days before the incident, told the police that he had visited his son’s grave just two days after the burial, only to find the body missing. He said that he had walked around the graveyard which is surrounded by thickly populated localities, searching for his son's body, and he had found five more bodies missing from their graves. A case of dragging out dead body of Bhooro Bheel from graveyard near Pangrio and then threw it on the road. This incident is not the first occurrence. The same act was committed in this area on two other grave sites; two dead bodies were dug up from their graves some time ago. One of these dead bodies was Mrs. Meeran, wife of Kewdo Kolhi, whose dead body was dug out by Kalifo Abdul Khaliq. They desecrated these gravesites. This person was an Extremist who brought a group of people and desecrated the body and no one knows where that body is located after the grave was opened and the body desecrated. Third incident occurred some time ago in village Khalifo Qasim near Pangrio city, the dead body of a 70 years old Maavo Kolhi, was buried in old joint graveyard but as the Religious Extremist group of people knew that dead body was a Hindu’s, they desecrated Maavo kolhi dead body, political parties, media and civil society showed no any reaction against this inhuman acts. MADARSSAHA CONTRIBUTING COMMUNAL VIOLENCE International Sindhi Women Organization, Sindhi Association of North America, World Sindhi Congress have condemned attacks on Hindu Mandirs in Larkaha, Tharparker, Hyderabad and other towns of Sindh and sent a petition to government of Pakistan and Sindh asking them to take note that thousands of unregulated and unregistered madrassas (religious schools), run by militant groups, continue to proliferate in Sindh which make use of the enrolled children for illegal violent activities in the name of religion. Unregulated madrassas are contributing to communal violence and the lack of basic quality education in the country. We believe that Pakistan should live up to the promise made eternal by its own national flag which represents one fourth of the minorities living in Pakistan. We believe that no religious, ethnic or racial minority should feel unsafe in Pakistan, and therefore, we strongly condemn any and all violence targeted against minorities. 720 CHRISTIAN AND HINDU SANITARY WORKERS DISPLACED IN KARACHI IN DEC 2013: The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Pakistani Christian and Hindu sanitary workers were forced to vacate a century old settlement after repeated incidents of rape, abduction and attacks on their houses by drug peddlers with the connivance of police and Pakistan Rangers. The community known as ‘Slaughter House Quarter’ in an old area of Karachi has been occupied by the police informers and gangs who are fighting to control the area. To force the Christians to leave their homes 3 Christians were killed and many women including a young girl were gang raped. According to European Commission 52409 people were killed in terrorist incidents in Pakistan since 2003. Out of them 22000 happen to be Shia Muslims. Allama Abbas Kumaili believes that since Nawaz government came into power around 5000 Shia Muslims have been martyred. Mirza Ashiq Hussain Beg chief of Anjuman Hussaini Hyderabad and former Hyderabad Mayor says “Shias are not minority and form 25% of Pakistan’s population that is 50 million but few thousand Talibans have unleashed reign of terror against them for the only reason that Nawaz government keeps soft corner for them. He said they have been pushed to wall but if their patience ran out the terrorists Taliban or others would not find way to run away. Noted Historian Dr. Mubarak Ideology of Pakistan has been essential component of hate against India and Hindus and text books used to articulate hatred. He goes on to add that Pakistan children are taught that state was created in name of Islam so don’t have tolerance for other religions and go to wipe out them. (The writer is senior journalist based in Hyderabad, Pakistan, bureau chief of daily Messenger Karachi, member writers international union, member governing body press club Hyderabad and member European Journalism Center, Brussels.)