Mass Exodus from their homes, made refugees and ethnically Cleansed. Why are Palestinians so different from Israelites of Prophet Moses?
Shanti Nagar, momemt to moment on First Terror Episode against Christians.<br>Dr. Stephen Gill. Canada.
The members of parliament in Pakistan are not interested in religious minorities because under the present system of election they do not represent constituencies as they represent in the west and even in Pakistan's neighbor, India. The members of pa
The attacks on Shanti Nagar, Khanewal and on the surrounding areas on the 5th and the 6th of February of 1997 were the direct consequences of these blasphemy laws and the separate electorate system. The destruction that was caused in Shanti Nagar by these wrong laws reminds one the destruction caused in 1947 when India was divided. Bishop John Joseph, who gave his life to repel these laws, was right when he says:
"Ironically, it is the mistake of law, which happens to be the first cause behind such incidents. Ever since this law came into existence, during the dictatorial regime of President Zia-ul-Haq in 1986, there has been growing intolerance in the country. These laws are being used to settle personal scores and fan religious tensions. The non-Muslim citizens are easily and comfortably labeled with such accusations. The attitude of the ordinary citizens is such that it is taken for granted that non-Muslims must have committed such offenses."1
Shanti Nagar, called Chak 72/10-R, was established in 1916, and received electric power in 1953. The village is a stronghold of the Salvation Army. Before 1972, its residents were tenants. After the land reform in 1972, its residents became owners of their land.
The present population consists of twenty-five to thirty thousand peaceful citizens. Half of the population is literate. Most people are agriculturalists or farmers. Some worked as teachers and office clerks. Nearly every third house had a tractor, a car, motorcycle, modern equipment for farming and other necessities of life. They kept cows and buffaloes for milk and butter. The village had twenty-five thousand acres of agricultural land. Most of the work was farming. With hard work and dedication, the Christians of this village had prospered.
The Christians were so considerate here that they had built a mosque for their Muslim residents. Christians and Muslims both celebrated the occasion when the foundation of this mosque was laid. Muslims and Christians in Shanti Nagar live in harmony even now.
After the attack on Shanti Nagar by zealots, the nerves of the cordial relationship between the Christians and the Muslims of this village were not damaged. Whatever ration the Christians received from the relief agencies after the attack, they shared with their around fifteen Muslim families. They also had good relations with most Muslim villages around. Shanti Nagar is about 10 km to the south of the city of Khanewal, which is in the Division of Multan. Shanti Nagar means an abode of peace. Fifty to sixty thousand zealots stormed this abode on the 6th of February 1997. The storm started from Khanewal, which is a stronghold of the militants.
The 6th of February of 1997 will be remembered among the black days in the history of Pakistan, because of the storm that caused havoc when the country was preparing for the celebrations of its golden anniversary. The storm gulfed the area on the day of Ramzan when Muslims ask God for forgiveness and give alms to the poor. On that holy day, the stormtroopers raised slogans to "kill the Christians because they are blasphemers toward the Holy Quaran and Holy Prophet."2
The attack started on the night of the 5th of February from Khanewal, although it had a link with an incident that took place about three weeks before. On the 17th of January 1997 in Shanti Nagar, police went to the house of Raj Pal, also called Baba Raji, suspecting that some people gamble and prepared liquor at his house. When the police did not find anything, they broke open a 3...shanti-1 locked box in his house and threw its contents on the floor.
During investigation, a copy of the Bible that was respectfully wrapped with a piece of cloth fell on the floor. When Baba Raji tried to pick up the Bible, a police officer kicked it, throwing the copy away. They took Baba Raji to the police station, although they did not find anything illegal in his house.
In the evening, some prominent residents, including Dr. Mushtaque, Mr. Samuel Jacob and Mr. Nathaniel, went to the police station when they heard about the unreasonable arrest of Baba Raji. At that time, the police were negotiating with Baba for a bribe of fifteen thousand rupees for his release. When Baba Raji told the people of his village that the police officers had kicked the Bible during the investigation, they became more angry and asked the police to register a case against those officers under 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code.
S.H.O. Aziz-ul- Rehman Dogra sent a team to the village to find the facts. The team confirmed the complaint of the Christians about defilement of the Bible. Yet, the police refused to register the case. The Christians held a meeting in which it was decided to hold a public demonstration against the behavior of the police. Around twenty thousand Christians from Khanewal, Shanti Nagar and other villages passed through the main town of Khanewal starting at 10:00 in the morning. They met the Deputy Commissioner.
The Deputy Commissioner expressed his sorrow, assuring the demonstrators that a case would be registered, the culprits would be suspended and the matter would be taken to court under the law of the country.
As a result, the administration did register the case. The police officers had their bail in advance. Later, the police asked the Christians to take the report back and settle the matter amicably. The officer in charge at that time was Superintendent of Police Habib Allah Ghuman.
When the residents of Shanti Nagar did not accept the condition, the Superintendent of Police, Habib Allah Ghuman, forced them to settle the matter out of court. The villagers replied that the matter was in court and they would wait for the outcome. This infuriated Mr. Ghuman. He threatened that he would see them in such a way that at least for fifty years they would not be able to stand on their own feet.
The Mirror of March 1997 from Lahore reported "Three policemen, Mohammed Sadiq, Noor Nabi and Rana Ramzan, were suspended and arrested when the Christians pressed their charges against them for defiling the Bible. Shortly, they were reinstated. Moreover, "On 3 February 1997, on Pakistan's general election day, policeman Rana Ramzan was posted in Shanti Nagar as a security officer."3 Rana Ramzan was the same officer who was alleged to have defiled the Bible at the house of Baba Raji on the 17th of January. The Christians took it as insult because the authorities did not honor their promise that was to suspend the police officers who 4...shanti-1 were involved with the case about the Bible.
The assurance of the Deputy Commissioner that he would take action against the police officers remained confined to the files, because the same police officers were seen performing their duties as usual. Higher authorities were informed again without any concrete result. This indifference of the police angered the Christians even more. The police officers also developed an animosity against the Christians because of their complaints. To take revenge, police hatched a plot that led to the attack on Shanti Nagar. The story about the attack appeared in The Mirror in the March 1997 issue also.
About two kilometers from Shanti Nagar, there was a small abandoned mosque without light and where hardly anyone went for prayer. This mosque was used to provoke the Muslims to attack Christians. On the 5th of February, at seven forty-five in the evening, Mohammad Shafi reportedly went to offer prayers in that mosque and found around some torn pages from the Koran. He called some persons to witness his claim that something sacrilegious about the Prophet Mohammed was written on those torn pages.
This was supposedly done by Baba Raji (60), because his name and address, along with the names and addresses of a few more, were written on the loose pages. Those alleged culprits did not know how to read and write. Baba Raji was the one who had complained and pressed for the charges to be registered against the police officers involved in desecrating the Bible in his home on the 17th of January. On the torn pages, a clear challenge was written to provoke the Muslims to do whatever was possible.
At 8.30 p.m., Mohammad Shafi, the man who found the torn pages, went to the Sadar police station in Khanewal and lodged Fir (First Information Report) No 55/97 under section 295-B & C of the Pakistan Penal Code. Under the Penal Code 295-C the only punishment is death, nothing else. For about half an hour after that, loudspeakers from mosques in the Khanewal city and from mosques in the nearby villages, accused the Christians of Shanti Nagar of defiling a copy of the Holy Koran.
They asked the faithful Muslims to get together to take revenge and proceed for Jihad against Christians. The Muslims of Khanewal and have the surrounding areas began to congregate, burning the tires and raising slogans against Christians. In towns such as Kabir Wala, Piro Wal, Katcha Khua, Kot Sajan Singh, and in Mian Chunnun demonstration were held and roads were blocked. In Katcha Kua the demonstration was so fierce that the main G.T. Road was blocked and the traffic remained jammed for hours. The railway line was also blocked. For those pages from the Koran and sacrilegious writing on those pages, police arrested three Christians, named Sardar Piru (65), Chaman Barkat (60), and Beshir Barkat (45) from Shanti Nagar. The police kept them in an unknown place. They were 5...shanti-1 arrested within thirty minutes of the registration of the case at the police station. The Christian leaders began to doubt that the police would torture them to get them to sign whatever they wanted. The attack was initiated from the historical city of Khanewal, known for the activities of the Muslim militants. Khanewal is not far from Shanti Nagar. Before proceeding further it is better to have some idea about this city.
The name Khanewal was given to the city by Daha Khans, a prominent political Rajput family. Their descendants were in that area for more than a hundred years. This fertile land is free from salinity and becoming water logged. The land of Khanewal stretches almost to Sahiwal to the north. The Khanewal town became important in the 7th and the 8th decade of the 19th century when the British regime laid railway tracks there. This development brought many people from several parts of India, including British officers.
In the 80's of the last century, Mr. Robert, an Englishman, began to grow cotton here on 25, 000 acres of land that he had leased for 99 years. Cotton is exported from there even now. Further migration took place in 1947 when Pakistan was carved out of India. Several Muslim families from India moved there. Some Muslims went there from Rohtak that is in Hissar, India. The land of the Hindus who left for India was allotted to those Muslims. They are called Rohtakis. They are mostly Sunni. They are hard working and hot tempered. These days, they control the politics and commerce of the area.
Most Christians in Khanewal are from Punjab. A majority of the Christian villages in Khanewal have their high schools, which have produced lawyers, teachers, nurses and others to serve the country. Christians form 10 to 35 per cent of the population in 25 villages around this area. The area is the hub of the activities of an extremist group known as Harkat-ul-Insar. It was reported that the plan to attack Shanti Nagar was prepared by Harkat-ul-Insar, a Muslim extremist organization, and the police.
The Mirror reported that Sufi Abdul Haq, a Muslim religious and political leader, quoting eyewitnesses, said that some unidentified persons went from mosque to mosque, making those announcements forcibly.4 The Friday Times mentions Rana Latif, Sarwar and Baga who went to different mosques to have those mosques make announcements. It appears that the announcements were uniform in their contents, which raises the suspicion that the mosques were supplied with written statements to be announced on loudspeakers.5
Sensing the impending danger, Father Darshan Theodore, the parish priest of the Catholic Church of Khanewal, went to the Deputy Commissioner at about 10:30 in the night. He was not in the city. Father Darshan Theodore rushed to the Additional Deputy Commissioner General, Dr. Pevaiz Ahmed, to request measures to avert the impending attack by the extremists. He assured Fr. Theodore that he would do the needful to control the situation.
Between 10:30 and 12 in the night, churches, Christian 6...shanti-1 institutions and houses began to be attacked in Khanewal. Thousands of Muslims attacked Civil Lines Christian Basti. They took the residents by surprise by burning their houses, shops and belongings. Close to this Christian Colony of Civil Lines, there is the Church of Pakistan, which was the first target. The next targets included a Catholic Church, Salvation Army Church and a dispensary. The mob stole and broke religious articles and set furniture and books to fire.
The same night, Fr. Darshan Theodore, between midnight and 12.30, again contacted the same Additional Deputy Commissioner General, Dr. Pervaiz Ahmed. He received the answer that they should not worry because the army was asked for help.
Deputy Commissioner Haseeb Athar asked the Deputy Superintendent of Police about the number of policemen he had. He said about 40. He asked him to deploy 15 of them at the gates of the Catholic Church.
In the morning, on the 6th of February, a mob attacked St. Joseph Church again when outside the Church there were about fifteen police officers to guard it. The crowd was equipped with axes, sticks, guns, knives and other sharp objects. The police did not try to stop the crowd. This church is located opposite to the District Council of Khanewal. The crowd broke down all the windows, doors and then collected all the carpets, mats, and religious articles and burnt them. Copies of the Bible were torn and thrown in anger on the floor and burnt. The holy statues of St. Joseph and Mary were smashed, crosses were broken, all the fans and lights destroyed. The tabernacle was also broken and the Holy Eucharist was thrown on the floor. There was fire everywhere in the church. Hundreds of people rushed to the Father's residence. Breaking all the doors and windows, they entered the house. All the parish records, registers, dinning room, kitchen and a guest room were totally wrecked. Everything in his office and bedroom were put on fire.
Another group attacked St. Joseph's school building and the boy's hostel where 150 borders were sleeping at that time. When the crowd started breaking everything, some boys ran away and saved themselves. Terrified, about fifty to sixty small children hid themselves under their beds. The zealots burnt the cotton mattresses and blankets in the dormitories. Children jumped from the roofs to save their lives. In the boy's hostel, the crowd destroyed the desks, tables, chairs and all that was usable. Several children saved their lives by running away from the attackers. The children were taken out in unconscious condition. The residence of the Father who was in charge of the dormitories was reduced to ashes. The father himself saved his life by hiding. In the school, the crowd burnt classroom furniture, doors and windows. All the school records were burnt.
The school laboratory was completely destroyed. Fr. Darshan saved his life by hiding himself behind the wall in his sitting room. Because of the smoke 7...shanti-1 in the room, the attackers could not see him. Close to the Catholic Church is the Salvation Army Church. They damaged and burnt this church. The crowd went to the Church of Pakistan again. They destroyed the church and also the adjacent house of the pastor. Pastor Elvyn Wilson, his wife and children, were inside the house when their house was set on fire. They saved their lives by locking themselves in a storeroom. Their neighbor, Habib Ullah Niazi, rescued them. The same crowd destroyed the Salvation Army Church and dispensary.
The crowd proceeded to a Christian establishment in Civil Lines. They set several shops and houses to fire. Those members of the families who could not run for their lives were treated violently. Five shops of Christians in Christian Colony, Civil Lines of Khanewal, were set to fire. Four Christian houses were attacked. The members of five families were beaten and their belongings destroyed.
This area was attacked twice. The second time, the Christians took preliminary steps for their protection. They collected bricks and stones on the roofs of their houses. The police was already there but did not stop the crowd. The zealots beat up several Christians. They ran to other houses for protection. The Christians, who were already on the roofs of their houses, started throwing stones and bricks on the crowd. Consequently, the crowd went back. This way, they did not let the crowd proceed further.
The mob proceeded to Khurampura, which is mostly a Christian settlement. The Christian youth of Khurampura were ready to meet any eventuality. The mob passed them by for fear of a confrontation. Meanwhile, the mob went again to the house of the parish priest and burnt the household items and church records in front of the policemen who did nothing to stop them, not even to discourage the mob. The policemen said that they had no authority for any action.
The Muslims kept raising anti-Christian slogans going from village to village on motorcycles, asking Muslims to congregate at a certain place that was not far from Shanti Nagar. About six in the morning, on the 6th of February, a mob started gathering there, while destruction continued in Khanewal and in the surrounding villages.
On the 5th of February at 9:00 in the night, Kalim Din was stopped near the bridge of Shanti Nagar when he was returning in his car with his wife and children. He was a witness in the case of Baba Raji concerning defilement of the Bible on the 17th of January. To remove him from the way, the police were alleged to have hired gangsters. Kalim Din was badly injured. He came to a village for help. Thousands of persons from the surrounding villages came to kill him, but they failed because they were not organized.
Around seven in the early morning on the 6th February, a police party headed by Habib Ahmed Ghuman, the officer who had 8...shanti-1 threatened the Christians earlier, went to the residents of Shanti Nagar to inform them that a mob was gathering outside their village. The police party had Mohammad Aslam, a magistrate, with them. They asked the Christians to hand over their arms to them and shut themselves in or go out. They should not retaliate. The mob would shout slogans and go away. The magistrate guaranteed them safety and the villagers assured the magistrate and the police that they would remain calm.
A few minutes before the attack, Latif, Sarwar and Baga from Ariah Nagar entered Shanti Nagar on motorcycles. They asked Christians to move out of their homes and churches because a massive procession was marching toward the village. They also assured the residents that the procession would be peaceful. They should go out of the village.
Before proceeding toward Shanti Nagar, the mob went to the Brook Bond packing factory on the outskirts of Khanewal and forced the workers to go on a strike and join them. The crowd was made up of people from the surrounding villages and cities of Khanewal, Kabirwallah, Main Channu and Multan, and was led by the police and the Muslim clergy. The crowd ransacked and burnt three churches in Khanewal, including the Salvation Army Church, and the Church of Pakistan, together with their dispensaries. On the way to Shanti Nagar, they attacked Tibba Colony, and blew up all the houses there, including the house of Dr. Mushir Alam, a hospital run by him, his two tractors, one car and two motorcycles. A Salvation Army Church and the school run by it were blown up with a special incendiary powder distributed by the police.
As soon as the crowd entered Shanti Nagar, the residents felt as if that was doomsday. Everywhere, they saw clouds of smoke. The attackers first cut off the telephone lines, and the electricity. Many were reportedly armed with rifles, pistols, daggers, homemade bombs and other weapons. The mob consisted of forty to fifty thousand persons, including old, young and children. Many of them had solid sticks, iron rods, naked swords, batons and burning torches. They came in cars and trucks in the morning when people were getting ready to go to work. Many were on tractors, trolleys, trucks, vans, bullow carts, and on donkey carts. As soon as they neared the village, they started destroying everything they could lay their hands on.
The attackers were divided into three groups. The first group grabbed cash, ornaments and other expensive articles while going from house to house. The second group drove away the livestock, including the cows and buffaloes. The third group consisted of trained terrorists. They carried guns and bags filled with some sort of powder. They used to throw that powder on the floor of houses and then fired shots from their guns, which ignited instant fire. They also threw bombs toward the roofs. The roofs came down and the iron-rods melted in no time with the heat. The fire burned 9...shanti-1 furniture, bicycles, including the documents of their properties, certificates and degrees, pension books and other valuable documents. The crowd cut down several trees, and also destroyed the orchards of the mangoes. All the shops in the village were burnt and looted. There was nothing to buy and sell. In the middle of the village was a square, which always bubbled with life. After the attack there were only the heaps of the coal and ashes.
The crowd had people who carried iron batons, which they used for breaking the locks. It appeared that the primary aim of the attackers was to break the financial back of the Christians. The Christians went from one house to another to save their lives. There were about four hundred police officers that were alleged to have distributed grenades and shells to the militants. The cries and wailing of the homeless Christians filled the air. The crowd torched houses and shops systematically, blowing them up with hand-grenades, petrol bombs, and the incendiary powder, which they used generously. The churches received special treatment as they were completely destroyed and Bibles and hymnbooks placed inside them were burnt..."6 Khanewal administration had informed the army. A helicopter was sent to inspect the area. Following this, Major Aslam was sent to that area with fifteen troops. The control was given to the army much against the wishes of the police. Moreover, the local police officers gave wrong directions to the army.
As a result, about half an hour was lost in finding the real place of tragedy. According to reports, the police was also slow in handing over control to the army to gain time for the mob. When the army saw the smoke coming out of the village, the police told them that the crowd had burnt some tires and the smoke was from those tires. Assessing the seriousness of the situation, the army entered the village without the complete permission of the police. As soon as they entered, the crowd disappeared. The soldiers were able to arrest some vandals. The police let them go after a while. Khaled Ahmed reported:
"The army contingent was however stopped by the police midway between Khanewal and Shanti Nagar. They assured the army that things were under control. Two hours were thus gained in which the crowd and its police leaders got busy in the destruction of property in Shanty Nagger. However, when the army men saw the inhabitants of the village running out in panic, they went in."7
While retreating, the crowd took away the water taps, the handles of the hand pumps, and damaged the water pumps, so that the residents were not able to get water to extinguish the fire. The crowd attacked the village at nine in the morning and remained in the village till twelve. During these hours the police 10...shanti-1 kept helping the crowd, sharing the loot. Frightening the Christians with guns and daggers, the mob compelled them to repeat the Koranic verses. Some Christians said that they were beaten when they refused to say the Islamic creed.
They burnt three churches and thousands of books and also defiled copies of the Bible. They took with them the holy utensils of the church. About three hundred houses with their belongings were burnt. They had enough time to divide their loot among themselves right there. They were violent with children, old people, young persons and women.
The priest of a church told his scribe that furniture, wooden doors, windows, curtains and books were reduced to ashes when the violent mob set the church afire."8 The homes, churches, crops and livestock was either burnt or looted. The mob was organized and came prepared with weapons. When they left, most houses had only walls without their roofs. The floors of the houses had heaps of ashes around them. For days, people had the same clothes, which they wore on the day of the attack. They had neither beds nor bed sheets and blankets. They did not have utensils to cook and water to drink. "The attackers took all the expensive things with them--gold ornaments, televisions, video machines, refrigerators, clothes, costly bedding, whatever they wanted and the rest was collected and set on fire,"9. Several married women were persuaded by several zealots to leave their husbands and marry Muslims right there and then. The crowd was not successful because of the arrival of the army.
"Ten Christian girls were sought to be forcibly converted to Islam for instant marriage to members of the mob but the attempt failed. There are also rumors that these girls were raped. There were widespread looting of goods and stealing of cattle, which the police was reported trying to recover from the surrounding Countryside..."10 The mob also attacked five villages, named 87/10.R Sad Form; 83/10R; 86-75/10R; 81-82/10R; 85/10R and Tiba Colony. They burnt and disgraced the churches even here. In one village 8182/10.R, they destroyed a church completely. Pulled down the cross and tied shoes with the cross.
Close to Chak 12 Rekhbirwala, they burnt a church and looted all the belongings. The women were kept under guard and were asked to work harder for them in the fields.
The army imposed a curfew to keep law and order. At seven in the evening, a person from the village rushed to a factory outside of Shanti Nagar to inform the Multan office of the Commission of Justice and Peace, an organization which is run by the Roman Catholic Church. Its volunteers called a meeting immediately to set a relief work. The first two trucks with relief supplies came from Multan. 11...shanti-1
A fire brigade arrived eight hours later and provided water. Several residents remained without food and water for two days. After two days, help began pouring a systematic way. "Mother of five, Mukhtari Bibi, told her story in tears. My whole family spent two days without food. We slept without warm bedding. We are homeless and shelter less. The Muslims burnt everything. This horrifying tale is not the story of a single woman but of hundreds. The people of Shanti Nagar will never forget the day when their homes were burnt and their village destroyed while the law enforcing agencies looked on". 11
According to one estimate, the crowd destroyed about one thousand houses and reduced thirteen churches to ashes in Khanewal, Shanti Nagar and in the surrounding areas. The 85 percent of Shanti Nagar was ruined. Thousands of copies of the Bible and other religious books were burnt.
In Christian Colony, all the shops were burnt and about fifteen hundred homes were set to fire. The extremists surrounded Christian Colony from all sides for hours. In the procession, nearly everyone was armed and it appeared as if they were preparing for a great battle. The Christians said later that in those days they saw death face to face. For two days, the women and children remained terror-stricken.
Many of the villagers had nothing after the incident, except the clothes they wore on the day of the incident. After the incident, many Muslim shopkeepers refused to sell food to Christians in Khanewal. The deputy commissioner of Khanewal gave only forty bags of flour and one hundred and eighty blankets and five hundred rupees to each of 200 families whose total loss was millions of rupees. There was a plan to attack a few other Christian villages but during that time the army began to guard those places.
Total monetary loss was close to one billion rupees. Twice the amount was required to rehabilitate the victims. But the psychological cost was much higher. The residents would carry those scars for years, and the children who saw that destruction will not be the same. It may take decades to build a bridge of understanding between the Muslims and the Christians of those areas.
The incident reminds one of the holocausts at the time of the creation of Pakistan in 1947 when the Hindus and Muslims killed one another in the name of God whom no body has seen. The young persons of today in Pakistan "No longer have to stretch their imagination to know what happened at the time of partition to the subcontinent 50 years ago, especially in the undivided Punjab. A visit to some villages in District Khanewal, as well as the city itself (430 km from Islamabad) would suffice to witness the onslaught of senseless 12...shanti-1 communal hatred, couched in self-righteous slogans and aimed at the destruction of all that stands for sane and sound places of worship of those having a different religious identity. The inhabitants of Shanti Nagar (ironically, the name of the village denotes peace), a quiet but burgeoning village till a few weeks back, overnight turned into a harassed crowd of the homeless people, refugees in their own hamlets and dependent on charity even for trivial necessities of daily life."12
After 1947, it was the second attack on minorities on a large scale. In 1989, there was an attack on Chak Sekunder on the Ahmedis, another minority that is a splinter group of Islam. This attack on Shanti Nagar was the second one and the first on the entire Christians of a village. In that storm of 1947, several Muslims in India saved their lives from the Hindus and the Sikhs by displaying the cross in front of their houses or wearing it to indicate they were Christians. The same section of the society, which had saved the lives of many Muslims in 1947, fell victim to their frenzy in 1997. It is all because of the separate electorate system and the blasphemy laws, which were introduced by Zia-ul-Haq.
=========================================================
BIBLIOGRAPHY
*1A Peaceful Struggle, Ed. Fr. Khalid Rashid ASI. Box 87, G.P.O., Bishop's House, Faisalabad, Pakistan, May 1999, p. 111
*2Flames & Ashes, Pakistan Christian Community Council, Lahore, Pakistan, 1997, Page 3.
*3The Mirror. Lahore, Pakistan) March 1997
*4The Mirror. Lahore, Pakistan) March 1997
*5Friday Times, The. 20th, February 1997
*6Friday Times, The. (Weekly), Khaled Ahmed. Feb. 20-26, 1997.
*7Friday Times, The. (Weekly), Khaled Ahmed. Feb. 20-26, 1997.
*8Dawn. Saturday, February 8, 1997
*9Asia Focus. Feb. 21, 1997
*10Friday Times, The. (weekly), Khaled Ahmed. Feb. 20-26, 1997.
*11Newsline. Feb.1997, page 83
*12Mirror, the. March 1997
"Ironically, it is the mistake of law, which happens to be the first cause behind such incidents. Ever since this law came into existence, during the dictatorial regime of President Zia-ul-Haq in 1986, there has been growing intolerance in the country. These laws are being used to settle personal scores and fan religious tensions. The non-Muslim citizens are easily and comfortably labeled with such accusations. The attitude of the ordinary citizens is such that it is taken for granted that non-Muslims must have committed such offenses."1
Shanti Nagar, called Chak 72/10-R, was established in 1916, and received electric power in 1953. The village is a stronghold of the Salvation Army. Before 1972, its residents were tenants. After the land reform in 1972, its residents became owners of their land.
The present population consists of twenty-five to thirty thousand peaceful citizens. Half of the population is literate. Most people are agriculturalists or farmers. Some worked as teachers and office clerks. Nearly every third house had a tractor, a car, motorcycle, modern equipment for farming and other necessities of life. They kept cows and buffaloes for milk and butter. The village had twenty-five thousand acres of agricultural land. Most of the work was farming. With hard work and dedication, the Christians of this village had prospered.
The Christians were so considerate here that they had built a mosque for their Muslim residents. Christians and Muslims both celebrated the occasion when the foundation of this mosque was laid. Muslims and Christians in Shanti Nagar live in harmony even now.
After the attack on Shanti Nagar by zealots, the nerves of the cordial relationship between the Christians and the Muslims of this village were not damaged. Whatever ration the Christians received from the relief agencies after the attack, they shared with their around fifteen Muslim families. They also had good relations with most Muslim villages around. Shanti Nagar is about 10 km to the south of the city of Khanewal, which is in the Division of Multan. Shanti Nagar means an abode of peace. Fifty to sixty thousand zealots stormed this abode on the 6th of February 1997. The storm started from Khanewal, which is a stronghold of the militants.
The 6th of February of 1997 will be remembered among the black days in the history of Pakistan, because of the storm that caused havoc when the country was preparing for the celebrations of its golden anniversary. The storm gulfed the area on the day of Ramzan when Muslims ask God for forgiveness and give alms to the poor. On that holy day, the stormtroopers raised slogans to "kill the Christians because they are blasphemers toward the Holy Quaran and Holy Prophet."2
The attack started on the night of the 5th of February from Khanewal, although it had a link with an incident that took place about three weeks before. On the 17th of January 1997 in Shanti Nagar, police went to the house of Raj Pal, also called Baba Raji, suspecting that some people gamble and prepared liquor at his house. When the police did not find anything, they broke open a 3...shanti-1 locked box in his house and threw its contents on the floor.
During investigation, a copy of the Bible that was respectfully wrapped with a piece of cloth fell on the floor. When Baba Raji tried to pick up the Bible, a police officer kicked it, throwing the copy away. They took Baba Raji to the police station, although they did not find anything illegal in his house.
In the evening, some prominent residents, including Dr. Mushtaque, Mr. Samuel Jacob and Mr. Nathaniel, went to the police station when they heard about the unreasonable arrest of Baba Raji. At that time, the police were negotiating with Baba for a bribe of fifteen thousand rupees for his release. When Baba Raji told the people of his village that the police officers had kicked the Bible during the investigation, they became more angry and asked the police to register a case against those officers under 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code.
S.H.O. Aziz-ul- Rehman Dogra sent a team to the village to find the facts. The team confirmed the complaint of the Christians about defilement of the Bible. Yet, the police refused to register the case. The Christians held a meeting in which it was decided to hold a public demonstration against the behavior of the police. Around twenty thousand Christians from Khanewal, Shanti Nagar and other villages passed through the main town of Khanewal starting at 10:00 in the morning. They met the Deputy Commissioner.
The Deputy Commissioner expressed his sorrow, assuring the demonstrators that a case would be registered, the culprits would be suspended and the matter would be taken to court under the law of the country.
As a result, the administration did register the case. The police officers had their bail in advance. Later, the police asked the Christians to take the report back and settle the matter amicably. The officer in charge at that time was Superintendent of Police Habib Allah Ghuman.
When the residents of Shanti Nagar did not accept the condition, the Superintendent of Police, Habib Allah Ghuman, forced them to settle the matter out of court. The villagers replied that the matter was in court and they would wait for the outcome. This infuriated Mr. Ghuman. He threatened that he would see them in such a way that at least for fifty years they would not be able to stand on their own feet.
The Mirror of March 1997 from Lahore reported "Three policemen, Mohammed Sadiq, Noor Nabi and Rana Ramzan, were suspended and arrested when the Christians pressed their charges against them for defiling the Bible. Shortly, they were reinstated. Moreover, "On 3 February 1997, on Pakistan's general election day, policeman Rana Ramzan was posted in Shanti Nagar as a security officer."3 Rana Ramzan was the same officer who was alleged to have defiled the Bible at the house of Baba Raji on the 17th of January. The Christians took it as insult because the authorities did not honor their promise that was to suspend the police officers who 4...shanti-1 were involved with the case about the Bible.
The assurance of the Deputy Commissioner that he would take action against the police officers remained confined to the files, because the same police officers were seen performing their duties as usual. Higher authorities were informed again without any concrete result. This indifference of the police angered the Christians even more. The police officers also developed an animosity against the Christians because of their complaints. To take revenge, police hatched a plot that led to the attack on Shanti Nagar. The story about the attack appeared in The Mirror in the March 1997 issue also.
About two kilometers from Shanti Nagar, there was a small abandoned mosque without light and where hardly anyone went for prayer. This mosque was used to provoke the Muslims to attack Christians. On the 5th of February, at seven forty-five in the evening, Mohammad Shafi reportedly went to offer prayers in that mosque and found around some torn pages from the Koran. He called some persons to witness his claim that something sacrilegious about the Prophet Mohammed was written on those torn pages.
This was supposedly done by Baba Raji (60), because his name and address, along with the names and addresses of a few more, were written on the loose pages. Those alleged culprits did not know how to read and write. Baba Raji was the one who had complained and pressed for the charges to be registered against the police officers involved in desecrating the Bible in his home on the 17th of January. On the torn pages, a clear challenge was written to provoke the Muslims to do whatever was possible.
At 8.30 p.m., Mohammad Shafi, the man who found the torn pages, went to the Sadar police station in Khanewal and lodged Fir (First Information Report) No 55/97 under section 295-B & C of the Pakistan Penal Code. Under the Penal Code 295-C the only punishment is death, nothing else. For about half an hour after that, loudspeakers from mosques in the Khanewal city and from mosques in the nearby villages, accused the Christians of Shanti Nagar of defiling a copy of the Holy Koran.
They asked the faithful Muslims to get together to take revenge and proceed for Jihad against Christians. The Muslims of Khanewal and have the surrounding areas began to congregate, burning the tires and raising slogans against Christians. In towns such as Kabir Wala, Piro Wal, Katcha Khua, Kot Sajan Singh, and in Mian Chunnun demonstration were held and roads were blocked. In Katcha Kua the demonstration was so fierce that the main G.T. Road was blocked and the traffic remained jammed for hours. The railway line was also blocked. For those pages from the Koran and sacrilegious writing on those pages, police arrested three Christians, named Sardar Piru (65), Chaman Barkat (60), and Beshir Barkat (45) from Shanti Nagar. The police kept them in an unknown place. They were 5...shanti-1 arrested within thirty minutes of the registration of the case at the police station. The Christian leaders began to doubt that the police would torture them to get them to sign whatever they wanted. The attack was initiated from the historical city of Khanewal, known for the activities of the Muslim militants. Khanewal is not far from Shanti Nagar. Before proceeding further it is better to have some idea about this city.
The name Khanewal was given to the city by Daha Khans, a prominent political Rajput family. Their descendants were in that area for more than a hundred years. This fertile land is free from salinity and becoming water logged. The land of Khanewal stretches almost to Sahiwal to the north. The Khanewal town became important in the 7th and the 8th decade of the 19th century when the British regime laid railway tracks there. This development brought many people from several parts of India, including British officers.
In the 80's of the last century, Mr. Robert, an Englishman, began to grow cotton here on 25, 000 acres of land that he had leased for 99 years. Cotton is exported from there even now. Further migration took place in 1947 when Pakistan was carved out of India. Several Muslim families from India moved there. Some Muslims went there from Rohtak that is in Hissar, India. The land of the Hindus who left for India was allotted to those Muslims. They are called Rohtakis. They are mostly Sunni. They are hard working and hot tempered. These days, they control the politics and commerce of the area.
Most Christians in Khanewal are from Punjab. A majority of the Christian villages in Khanewal have their high schools, which have produced lawyers, teachers, nurses and others to serve the country. Christians form 10 to 35 per cent of the population in 25 villages around this area. The area is the hub of the activities of an extremist group known as Harkat-ul-Insar. It was reported that the plan to attack Shanti Nagar was prepared by Harkat-ul-Insar, a Muslim extremist organization, and the police.
The Mirror reported that Sufi Abdul Haq, a Muslim religious and political leader, quoting eyewitnesses, said that some unidentified persons went from mosque to mosque, making those announcements forcibly.4 The Friday Times mentions Rana Latif, Sarwar and Baga who went to different mosques to have those mosques make announcements. It appears that the announcements were uniform in their contents, which raises the suspicion that the mosques were supplied with written statements to be announced on loudspeakers.5
Sensing the impending danger, Father Darshan Theodore, the parish priest of the Catholic Church of Khanewal, went to the Deputy Commissioner at about 10:30 in the night. He was not in the city. Father Darshan Theodore rushed to the Additional Deputy Commissioner General, Dr. Pevaiz Ahmed, to request measures to avert the impending attack by the extremists. He assured Fr. Theodore that he would do the needful to control the situation.
Between 10:30 and 12 in the night, churches, Christian 6...shanti-1 institutions and houses began to be attacked in Khanewal. Thousands of Muslims attacked Civil Lines Christian Basti. They took the residents by surprise by burning their houses, shops and belongings. Close to this Christian Colony of Civil Lines, there is the Church of Pakistan, which was the first target. The next targets included a Catholic Church, Salvation Army Church and a dispensary. The mob stole and broke religious articles and set furniture and books to fire.
The same night, Fr. Darshan Theodore, between midnight and 12.30, again contacted the same Additional Deputy Commissioner General, Dr. Pervaiz Ahmed. He received the answer that they should not worry because the army was asked for help.
Deputy Commissioner Haseeb Athar asked the Deputy Superintendent of Police about the number of policemen he had. He said about 40. He asked him to deploy 15 of them at the gates of the Catholic Church.
In the morning, on the 6th of February, a mob attacked St. Joseph Church again when outside the Church there were about fifteen police officers to guard it. The crowd was equipped with axes, sticks, guns, knives and other sharp objects. The police did not try to stop the crowd. This church is located opposite to the District Council of Khanewal. The crowd broke down all the windows, doors and then collected all the carpets, mats, and religious articles and burnt them. Copies of the Bible were torn and thrown in anger on the floor and burnt. The holy statues of St. Joseph and Mary were smashed, crosses were broken, all the fans and lights destroyed. The tabernacle was also broken and the Holy Eucharist was thrown on the floor. There was fire everywhere in the church. Hundreds of people rushed to the Father's residence. Breaking all the doors and windows, they entered the house. All the parish records, registers, dinning room, kitchen and a guest room were totally wrecked. Everything in his office and bedroom were put on fire.
Another group attacked St. Joseph's school building and the boy's hostel where 150 borders were sleeping at that time. When the crowd started breaking everything, some boys ran away and saved themselves. Terrified, about fifty to sixty small children hid themselves under their beds. The zealots burnt the cotton mattresses and blankets in the dormitories. Children jumped from the roofs to save their lives. In the boy's hostel, the crowd destroyed the desks, tables, chairs and all that was usable. Several children saved their lives by running away from the attackers. The children were taken out in unconscious condition. The residence of the Father who was in charge of the dormitories was reduced to ashes. The father himself saved his life by hiding. In the school, the crowd burnt classroom furniture, doors and windows. All the school records were burnt.
The school laboratory was completely destroyed. Fr. Darshan saved his life by hiding himself behind the wall in his sitting room. Because of the smoke 7...shanti-1 in the room, the attackers could not see him. Close to the Catholic Church is the Salvation Army Church. They damaged and burnt this church. The crowd went to the Church of Pakistan again. They destroyed the church and also the adjacent house of the pastor. Pastor Elvyn Wilson, his wife and children, were inside the house when their house was set on fire. They saved their lives by locking themselves in a storeroom. Their neighbor, Habib Ullah Niazi, rescued them. The same crowd destroyed the Salvation Army Church and dispensary.
The crowd proceeded to a Christian establishment in Civil Lines. They set several shops and houses to fire. Those members of the families who could not run for their lives were treated violently. Five shops of Christians in Christian Colony, Civil Lines of Khanewal, were set to fire. Four Christian houses were attacked. The members of five families were beaten and their belongings destroyed.
This area was attacked twice. The second time, the Christians took preliminary steps for their protection. They collected bricks and stones on the roofs of their houses. The police was already there but did not stop the crowd. The zealots beat up several Christians. They ran to other houses for protection. The Christians, who were already on the roofs of their houses, started throwing stones and bricks on the crowd. Consequently, the crowd went back. This way, they did not let the crowd proceed further.
The mob proceeded to Khurampura, which is mostly a Christian settlement. The Christian youth of Khurampura were ready to meet any eventuality. The mob passed them by for fear of a confrontation. Meanwhile, the mob went again to the house of the parish priest and burnt the household items and church records in front of the policemen who did nothing to stop them, not even to discourage the mob. The policemen said that they had no authority for any action.
The Muslims kept raising anti-Christian slogans going from village to village on motorcycles, asking Muslims to congregate at a certain place that was not far from Shanti Nagar. About six in the morning, on the 6th of February, a mob started gathering there, while destruction continued in Khanewal and in the surrounding villages.
On the 5th of February at 9:00 in the night, Kalim Din was stopped near the bridge of Shanti Nagar when he was returning in his car with his wife and children. He was a witness in the case of Baba Raji concerning defilement of the Bible on the 17th of January. To remove him from the way, the police were alleged to have hired gangsters. Kalim Din was badly injured. He came to a village for help. Thousands of persons from the surrounding villages came to kill him, but they failed because they were not organized.
Around seven in the early morning on the 6th February, a police party headed by Habib Ahmed Ghuman, the officer who had 8...shanti-1 threatened the Christians earlier, went to the residents of Shanti Nagar to inform them that a mob was gathering outside their village. The police party had Mohammad Aslam, a magistrate, with them. They asked the Christians to hand over their arms to them and shut themselves in or go out. They should not retaliate. The mob would shout slogans and go away. The magistrate guaranteed them safety and the villagers assured the magistrate and the police that they would remain calm.
A few minutes before the attack, Latif, Sarwar and Baga from Ariah Nagar entered Shanti Nagar on motorcycles. They asked Christians to move out of their homes and churches because a massive procession was marching toward the village. They also assured the residents that the procession would be peaceful. They should go out of the village.
Before proceeding toward Shanti Nagar, the mob went to the Brook Bond packing factory on the outskirts of Khanewal and forced the workers to go on a strike and join them. The crowd was made up of people from the surrounding villages and cities of Khanewal, Kabirwallah, Main Channu and Multan, and was led by the police and the Muslim clergy. The crowd ransacked and burnt three churches in Khanewal, including the Salvation Army Church, and the Church of Pakistan, together with their dispensaries. On the way to Shanti Nagar, they attacked Tibba Colony, and blew up all the houses there, including the house of Dr. Mushir Alam, a hospital run by him, his two tractors, one car and two motorcycles. A Salvation Army Church and the school run by it were blown up with a special incendiary powder distributed by the police.
As soon as the crowd entered Shanti Nagar, the residents felt as if that was doomsday. Everywhere, they saw clouds of smoke. The attackers first cut off the telephone lines, and the electricity. Many were reportedly armed with rifles, pistols, daggers, homemade bombs and other weapons. The mob consisted of forty to fifty thousand persons, including old, young and children. Many of them had solid sticks, iron rods, naked swords, batons and burning torches. They came in cars and trucks in the morning when people were getting ready to go to work. Many were on tractors, trolleys, trucks, vans, bullow carts, and on donkey carts. As soon as they neared the village, they started destroying everything they could lay their hands on.
The attackers were divided into three groups. The first group grabbed cash, ornaments and other expensive articles while going from house to house. The second group drove away the livestock, including the cows and buffaloes. The third group consisted of trained terrorists. They carried guns and bags filled with some sort of powder. They used to throw that powder on the floor of houses and then fired shots from their guns, which ignited instant fire. They also threw bombs toward the roofs. The roofs came down and the iron-rods melted in no time with the heat. The fire burned 9...shanti-1 furniture, bicycles, including the documents of their properties, certificates and degrees, pension books and other valuable documents. The crowd cut down several trees, and also destroyed the orchards of the mangoes. All the shops in the village were burnt and looted. There was nothing to buy and sell. In the middle of the village was a square, which always bubbled with life. After the attack there were only the heaps of the coal and ashes.
The crowd had people who carried iron batons, which they used for breaking the locks. It appeared that the primary aim of the attackers was to break the financial back of the Christians. The Christians went from one house to another to save their lives. There were about four hundred police officers that were alleged to have distributed grenades and shells to the militants. The cries and wailing of the homeless Christians filled the air. The crowd torched houses and shops systematically, blowing them up with hand-grenades, petrol bombs, and the incendiary powder, which they used generously. The churches received special treatment as they were completely destroyed and Bibles and hymnbooks placed inside them were burnt..."6 Khanewal administration had informed the army. A helicopter was sent to inspect the area. Following this, Major Aslam was sent to that area with fifteen troops. The control was given to the army much against the wishes of the police. Moreover, the local police officers gave wrong directions to the army.
As a result, about half an hour was lost in finding the real place of tragedy. According to reports, the police was also slow in handing over control to the army to gain time for the mob. When the army saw the smoke coming out of the village, the police told them that the crowd had burnt some tires and the smoke was from those tires. Assessing the seriousness of the situation, the army entered the village without the complete permission of the police. As soon as they entered, the crowd disappeared. The soldiers were able to arrest some vandals. The police let them go after a while. Khaled Ahmed reported:
"The army contingent was however stopped by the police midway between Khanewal and Shanti Nagar. They assured the army that things were under control. Two hours were thus gained in which the crowd and its police leaders got busy in the destruction of property in Shanty Nagger. However, when the army men saw the inhabitants of the village running out in panic, they went in."7
While retreating, the crowd took away the water taps, the handles of the hand pumps, and damaged the water pumps, so that the residents were not able to get water to extinguish the fire. The crowd attacked the village at nine in the morning and remained in the village till twelve. During these hours the police 10...shanti-1 kept helping the crowd, sharing the loot. Frightening the Christians with guns and daggers, the mob compelled them to repeat the Koranic verses. Some Christians said that they were beaten when they refused to say the Islamic creed.
They burnt three churches and thousands of books and also defiled copies of the Bible. They took with them the holy utensils of the church. About three hundred houses with their belongings were burnt. They had enough time to divide their loot among themselves right there. They were violent with children, old people, young persons and women.
The priest of a church told his scribe that furniture, wooden doors, windows, curtains and books were reduced to ashes when the violent mob set the church afire."8 The homes, churches, crops and livestock was either burnt or looted. The mob was organized and came prepared with weapons. When they left, most houses had only walls without their roofs. The floors of the houses had heaps of ashes around them. For days, people had the same clothes, which they wore on the day of the attack. They had neither beds nor bed sheets and blankets. They did not have utensils to cook and water to drink. "The attackers took all the expensive things with them--gold ornaments, televisions, video machines, refrigerators, clothes, costly bedding, whatever they wanted and the rest was collected and set on fire,"9. Several married women were persuaded by several zealots to leave their husbands and marry Muslims right there and then. The crowd was not successful because of the arrival of the army.
"Ten Christian girls were sought to be forcibly converted to Islam for instant marriage to members of the mob but the attempt failed. There are also rumors that these girls were raped. There were widespread looting of goods and stealing of cattle, which the police was reported trying to recover from the surrounding Countryside..."10 The mob also attacked five villages, named 87/10.R Sad Form; 83/10R; 86-75/10R; 81-82/10R; 85/10R and Tiba Colony. They burnt and disgraced the churches even here. In one village 8182/10.R, they destroyed a church completely. Pulled down the cross and tied shoes with the cross.
Close to Chak 12 Rekhbirwala, they burnt a church and looted all the belongings. The women were kept under guard and were asked to work harder for them in the fields.
The army imposed a curfew to keep law and order. At seven in the evening, a person from the village rushed to a factory outside of Shanti Nagar to inform the Multan office of the Commission of Justice and Peace, an organization which is run by the Roman Catholic Church. Its volunteers called a meeting immediately to set a relief work. The first two trucks with relief supplies came from Multan. 11...shanti-1
A fire brigade arrived eight hours later and provided water. Several residents remained without food and water for two days. After two days, help began pouring a systematic way. "Mother of five, Mukhtari Bibi, told her story in tears. My whole family spent two days without food. We slept without warm bedding. We are homeless and shelter less. The Muslims burnt everything. This horrifying tale is not the story of a single woman but of hundreds. The people of Shanti Nagar will never forget the day when their homes were burnt and their village destroyed while the law enforcing agencies looked on". 11
According to one estimate, the crowd destroyed about one thousand houses and reduced thirteen churches to ashes in Khanewal, Shanti Nagar and in the surrounding areas. The 85 percent of Shanti Nagar was ruined. Thousands of copies of the Bible and other religious books were burnt.
In Christian Colony, all the shops were burnt and about fifteen hundred homes were set to fire. The extremists surrounded Christian Colony from all sides for hours. In the procession, nearly everyone was armed and it appeared as if they were preparing for a great battle. The Christians said later that in those days they saw death face to face. For two days, the women and children remained terror-stricken.
Many of the villagers had nothing after the incident, except the clothes they wore on the day of the incident. After the incident, many Muslim shopkeepers refused to sell food to Christians in Khanewal. The deputy commissioner of Khanewal gave only forty bags of flour and one hundred and eighty blankets and five hundred rupees to each of 200 families whose total loss was millions of rupees. There was a plan to attack a few other Christian villages but during that time the army began to guard those places.
Total monetary loss was close to one billion rupees. Twice the amount was required to rehabilitate the victims. But the psychological cost was much higher. The residents would carry those scars for years, and the children who saw that destruction will not be the same. It may take decades to build a bridge of understanding between the Muslims and the Christians of those areas.
The incident reminds one of the holocausts at the time of the creation of Pakistan in 1947 when the Hindus and Muslims killed one another in the name of God whom no body has seen. The young persons of today in Pakistan "No longer have to stretch their imagination to know what happened at the time of partition to the subcontinent 50 years ago, especially in the undivided Punjab. A visit to some villages in District Khanewal, as well as the city itself (430 km from Islamabad) would suffice to witness the onslaught of senseless 12...shanti-1 communal hatred, couched in self-righteous slogans and aimed at the destruction of all that stands for sane and sound places of worship of those having a different religious identity. The inhabitants of Shanti Nagar (ironically, the name of the village denotes peace), a quiet but burgeoning village till a few weeks back, overnight turned into a harassed crowd of the homeless people, refugees in their own hamlets and dependent on charity even for trivial necessities of daily life."12
After 1947, it was the second attack on minorities on a large scale. In 1989, there was an attack on Chak Sekunder on the Ahmedis, another minority that is a splinter group of Islam. This attack on Shanti Nagar was the second one and the first on the entire Christians of a village. In that storm of 1947, several Muslims in India saved their lives from the Hindus and the Sikhs by displaying the cross in front of their houses or wearing it to indicate they were Christians. The same section of the society, which had saved the lives of many Muslims in 1947, fell victim to their frenzy in 1997. It is all because of the separate electorate system and the blasphemy laws, which were introduced by Zia-ul-Haq.
=========================================================
BIBLIOGRAPHY
*1A Peaceful Struggle, Ed. Fr. Khalid Rashid ASI. Box 87, G.P.O., Bishop's House, Faisalabad, Pakistan, May 1999, p. 111
*2Flames & Ashes, Pakistan Christian Community Council, Lahore, Pakistan, 1997, Page 3.
*3The Mirror. Lahore, Pakistan) March 1997
*4The Mirror. Lahore, Pakistan) March 1997
*5Friday Times, The. 20th, February 1997
*6Friday Times, The. (Weekly), Khaled Ahmed. Feb. 20-26, 1997.
*7Friday Times, The. (Weekly), Khaled Ahmed. Feb. 20-26, 1997.
*8Dawn. Saturday, February 8, 1997
*9Asia Focus. Feb. 21, 1997
*10Friday Times, The. (weekly), Khaled Ahmed. Feb. 20-26, 1997.
*11Newsline. Feb.1997, page 83
*12Mirror, the. March 1997
You May Also Like
In this special Iran-Israel War update, we cover the latest developments in the escalating conflict between the two Middle Eastern powers.Iran'
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and his deputy
"Trial of Pakistani Christian Nation" By Nazir S Bhatti
On demand of our readers, I have decided to release E-Book version of "Trial of Pakistani Christian Nation" on website of PCP which can also be viewed on website of Pakistan Christian Congress www.pakistanchristiancongress.org . You can read chapter wise by clicking tab on left handside of PDF format of E-Book.