Invitation for Interfaith Seminar Organize by HRF & PHP

By Mohammad S.Solanki (PHP Managing Editor)
Friday, June 11, 2010

Dear Gopinathji
          Hope you will be fine, I am Thank full to you and also Arvindji for good suggestion's. Please see an attach file of  Interfaith Seminar  that will be conduct on 11th June organize by the Hare Rama Foundation and Pakistan Hindu Post.

With regards,
Hare Rama Foundation (Pakistan)

Why Interfaith Seminar, Because it refer to cooperative and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e., "faiths") and spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional level with the aim of deriving a common ground in belief through a concentration on similarities between faiths, understanding of values, and commitment to the Nation.

Introduction to Organizer

Hare Rama Foundation (HRF), Is non-Government & non-profit Organization, registered under Society Act (1860) with Government of Pakistan, Working for the development of the poor and deserving people of Pakistan who aim to contribute their practical services to uplift and develop the whole community.

HRF is working for the Minorities (Scheduled Caste) rights, Women rights, Interfaith Harmony & Educational Improvements in rural areas without any discrimination of race.

We being an Organization, have logically realized that this part of the country or race. (Bahawal Pur Division) & specially the rural areas had never been (focused for practical education, technical education, Interfaith Harmony and Economic development in Pakistan.

Here is HRF Website - http://www.hrfpk.org/

Editorial Note - Pakistan Hindu Post Welcomes and thanks to HRF for its encouraging step for Interfaith-Dialogue to bring peace/posterity in Society of Humankind. Once we receive pictures, it will defiantly be posted in PHP.

Deputy Attorney General serve Hindus to "heal the wounds" and rebuild the image of Islam, Pakistan and Pakhtuns

By Rajesh Kumar (PHP Islamabad)
Friday, June 11, 2010

(PHOTO : Khurshid Khan in middle with Sikhs in Peshawar Temple, Pakistan)

PESHAWAR : After polishing shoes of the Sikh community members at a temple for two months to promote the soft image of Muslims and Pakhtuns, a deputy attorney general from the province is now looking to serve at churches and Hindu temples to further expand his message of peace.

Khurshid Khan, deputy attorney general of Pakistan, is to begin visiting Hindus at Ratan Nath Temple in Karimpura from today in connection with his effort to rebuild the image of Islam, Pakistan and Pakhtuns. He is planning to visit India in the coming days to convey to the Hindu and Sikh community members that Muslims are not terrorists.

Later in the year, he plans to be in the US on 9/11 to communicate his message of peace on the day that the US was attacked and life became difficult for Muslims all over the world. My slogan is that I am a fundamentalist Muslim, a patriotic Pakistani and a true Pakhtun but not a terrorist, Khurshid Khan told The News.

The senior lawyer said he felt Muslims and Pakhtuns needed to portray their true image to the world. He worked at Sikh temple, Gurdwara Jogan Singh, in Dabgari, Peshawar, for almost two months to rebuild the image of Muslims. He started visiting the temple after killing of a Sikh, Jaspal Singh, at the hands of kidnappers. Two other companions of Jaspal Singh were recovered during a military operation.

For days they suspected me. Later, one of their elders allowed me to work at the shoe kiosk where I used to place shoes of the Sikhs visiting the temple for worship in a rack and also polished it, said the senior advocate, who unsuccessfully contested election to the National Assembly twice in 1985 and 2002.

While serving at the temple in Dabgari Bazaar, Khurshid used to follow the Sikh principles like wearing yellow headscarf and observing silence when the Sikhs offered prayers. Khurshid has been in active politics since his student days at the University of Peshawar. He headed the Peoples Students Federation at the university twice and later became its provincial chairman.

Khurshid grabbed attention when he shot himself in the hand during a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club before the 2002 general elections to protest the PPP decision not to give him a ticket to contest election for the NA-1 (Peshawar) seat. During the movement of lawyers, he sprayed the face of Ahmad Raza Kasuri, the counsel for former President Gen Pervez Musharraf, with paint to protest the insulting remarks of the latter against senior members of the legal fraternity. Today I visited Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Hassanabdal. I have studied books about Sikh religion which also preach peace and love like Islam, he said.

Khurshid said he was a true Muslim and his visits to the worship places of Sikhs, Hindus and Christians were meant to remove the misgivings about the Muslims. He said he was a fundamentalist Muslim, offering his prayers regularly and reciting Holy Quran and Darood Sharif most of the time.

VIEW : The demand for Pakistan and Islam —By Ishtiaq Ahmed

Source Daily Times
Friday, June 11, 2010

(PHOTO : Ishtiaq Ahmed)

The Muslim League’s propaganda struck terror in the hearts of the Hindus and Sikhs who were told that they would be paying jazya and Islamic law will prevail in all sectors of individual and collective life. The minority Shia and Ahmediyya communities were also fearful that it would result in Sunni domination

The recent attack on a congregation of Ahmedis during prayers, which claimed more than 90 innocent lives, has revived a discussion as to whether there is a connection between the creation of Pakistan and Islam. Within the Muslim League there was always a constituency in favour of Pakistan becoming an Islamic state. One of its proponents was a close confident of Jinnah: Raja Sahib Mahmudabad, a Shia. In 1939 he wrote to the historian Mohibul Hassan:

“When we speak of democracy in Islam it is not democracy in the government but in the cultural and social aspects of life. Islam is totalitarian — there is no denying about it. It is the Quran that we should turn to. It is the dictatorship of the Quranic laws that we want — and that we will have — but not through non-violence and Gandhian truth” (Mushirul Hasan, 1997: 57-8).

If the March 23, 1940, Lahore Resolution be taken as the start of the Pakistan campaign, then Jinnah had to make a breakthrough in the Muslim-majority provinces of northwestern India — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh — each of which had regional parties headed by Muslims. The Muslim League had to convince the Muslim voters in these provinces that their leaders were courting Hindus and Sikhs and thus were paving the way for Hindu Raj under the Indian National Congress. That opportunity arrived in July 1945 when the British government announced provincial elections for February 1946. Punjab Governor Sir Bertrand Glancy has recorded in several secret fortnightly reports (FR) the tactics that the Muslim League adopted during the long election campaign. In the FR of December 27, 1945, Glancy noted:

“Among Muslims the Leaguers are increasing their efforts to appeal to the bigotry of the electors. Pirs and maulvis have been enlisted in large numbers to tour the province and denounce all who oppose the League as infidels. Copies of the Holy Quran are carried around as an emblem peculiar to the Muslim League. Feroz [Khan Noon] and others openly preach that every vote given to the League is a vote cast in favour of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). These deplorable tactics, as I have frequently said, were only to be expected; they provide a grim augury of the future peace of India and they are certainly not easy for the Unionists to counter” (Lionel Carter, 2006: 160).

In the FR of February 2, 1946, Glancy wrote:

“The ML [Muslim League] orators are becoming increasingly fanatical in their speeches. Maulvis and pirs and students travel all round the province and preach that those who fail to vote for the League candidates will cease to be Muslims; their marriages will no longer be valid and they will be entirely excommunicated...It is not easy to foresee what the results of the elections will be. But there seems little doubt the Muslim League, thanks to the ruthless methods by which they have pursued their campaign of ‘Islam in danger’, will considerably increase the number of their seats and Unionist representatives will correspondingly decline” (Carter, 2006: 171).

Similar tactics were adopted in the campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. In his doctoral dissertation, India, Pakistan or Pakhtunistan?, Erland Jansson writes:

“The pir of Manki Sharif...founded an organisation of his own, the Anjuman-us-asfia. The organisation promised to support the Muslim League on the condition that Shariat would be enforced in Pakistan. To this Jinnah agreed. As a result the pir of Manki Sharif declared jihad to achieve Pakistan and ordered the members of his anjuman to support the League in the 1946 elections” (pg 166).

Jinnah wrote in November 1945 a letter to Pir Manki Sharif in which he promised that the Shariat would apply to the affairs of the Muslim majority. He wrote:

“It is needless to emphasise that the Constituent Assembly, which would be predominantly Muslim in its composition, would be able to enact laws for Muslims, not inconsistent with the Shariat laws and the Muslims will no longer be obliged to abide by the un-Islamic laws” (Constituent Assembly of Pakistan Debates, Volume 5, 1949, pg 46).

The Muslim League’s propaganda struck terror in the hearts of the Hindus and Sikhs who were told that they would be paying jazya and Islamic law will prevail in all sectors of individual and collective life. The minority Shia and Ahmediyya communities were also fearful that it would result in Sunni domination. This is obvious from the correspondence between the Shia leader Syed Ali Zaheer and Jinnah in July 1944 (G Allana, 1977: 375-9). Although the Council of Action of the All-Parties Shia Conference passed a resolution on December 25, 1945, rejecting the idea of Pakistan (SR Bakshi, 1997: 848-9), most Shias shifted their loyalty to the Muslim League in the hope that Pakistan will be a non-sectarian state. Initially the Ahmediyya were also wary and reluctant to support the demand for a separate Muslim state (Munir Report, 1954: 196). It is only when Sir Zafarullah was won over by Jinnah that the Ahmedis started supporting the demand for Pakistan. To all such groups Jinnah gave assurances that Pakistan will not be a sectarian state.

In my forthcoming book on the partition of Punjab, now running into more than 1,000 pages but which is at last completed and for which I am now looking for a publisher, I will shed light on how the fierce Islamist propaganda impacted on the partition of Punjab. The Sikhs had more fears than anyone else about what could happen to minorities in Pakistan. In a meeting in May 1947 sponsored by Lord Mountbatten to help the Muslims and Sikhs reach an agreement on keeping Punjab united, Jinnah offered the Sikhs all the safeguards they wanted if they agreed to support Pakistan. Only in March 1947 some 2,000-10,000 Sikhs — depending on who you cite — were butchered in the Rawalpindi rural areas so the Sikhs were very wary of Jinnah’s overtures. Chief Minister of Patiala Hardit Singh Malik writes he had an inspiration and asked Jinnah: “Sir you are making all the promises but God forbid if something happens to you, what will happen then?” The exact words Jinnah used in reply will be revealed in my forthcoming book, but the reasoning was that his followers will treat his words as sacred.

Ishtiaq Ahmed is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) and the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Stockholm University. He is currently working on a book, Is Pakistan a Garrison State? He can be reached at isasia@nus.edu.sg

It is time to bring back the ‘white’ a Constitutional Obligation for Pakistan to Protect the Rights of the Minorities

By Editorial Staff
Friday, June 11, 2010

 (PHOTO : National Flag of Pakistan with white stripe in flag “represents the minorities”)

Islamabad : The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s website tells us that our national flag “symbolises Pakistan’s profound commitment to Islam, the Islamic world and the rights of religious minorities” and that the white stripe in our national flag “represents the minorities”.

Unfortunately, for the last 25 years, Pakistan officially forgot the rights of its minorities to ‘freely’ “profess and practice their religions and develop their cultures”. General Ziaul Haq omitted the word ‘freely’ from the original text of the Objectives Resolution through the 8th Amendment. Nobody noticed it till now when the incumbent government was able to restore the word in the constitution through the 18th Amendment. It is shocking that not only was this omission never highlighted but even the reinsertion was ignored by many until the Supreme Court’s remarks on this issue on Tuesday. The chief justice remarked how strange it was “that not even a single member in the 1985 National Assembly noticed the mistake and allowed the 8th Amendment to pass just like that.” He lauded the incumbent parliament for doing away with this grave injustice to the minorities.

In the absence of a constitution immediately after independence, Pakistan was ruled under the Government of India Act 1935. The Objectives Resolution was passed in 1949 by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan so that the country’s future constitution would not be completely based on a European model. This resolution laid the foundations of an incrementally theocratic state, something that the founder of Pakistan, Mr Jinnah, never envisaged.

In his August 11, 1947 speech, Jinnah made it clear that one’s religion would have nothing to do with the business of the state. “Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the state,” were the exact words of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. But the Objectives Resolution and subsequently all our rulers ignored Jinnah and did the exact opposite of what he professed and stood for. As Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry rightly remarked, it is indeed strange that nobody noticed this ‘mistake’ (read criminal negligence) in 1985. For the past 25 years, the state had officially stamped its approval to ‘freely’ discriminate against religious minorities. Jinnah and the others who fought for the freedom of Pakistan always argued that the Muslims were a large minority in India, thus they needed constitutional safeguards. The Congress’s refusal to accept the Muslim minority as a nation inevitably led to the partition of the Indian subcontinent. It is both ironic and tragic that a state formed on the basis of a large minority transmogrified into a state that could not protect the rights of its own minorities. Successive governments and the military, for their foreign policy objectives, nurtured the religious extremists, ultimately leading to an intolerant society. We just have to take a look around us to know how the Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmedis and Shias have been subjected to violence by the right-wing fanatics over the years. The massacre of the Ahmedis on May 28 is a grim reminder of the state of affairs vis-à-vis the minorities in Pakistan.

Justice Jawwad S Khwaja’s words are true: “We cannot shut our eyes or go into denial as intolerance is increasing. All is not honky dory here.” It is a constitutional obligation for all state institutions, including the judiciary, to protect the rights of the minorities. It is time to bring back the ‘white’. *

Pakistan : Sikh yatrees arrive for Guru Arjun Dev’s 404th death anniversary

By Dr.Radhe Shyam Kumar (PHP Lahore)
Friday, June 11, 2010

(PHOTO : Sikh Yatrees arrive in Lahore, Pakistan)

* Pilgrims arrive at Wahga Railway Station, later leave for Hassanabdal
* Yatrees’ leader says India, Pakistan should enhance confidence-building process, resume bilateral talks
* Sikh community wants both countries to ease visa process

LAHORE : Around 450 Sikh pilgrims arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday to attend the 404th death anniversary of Guru Arjun Dev Gee at the Gurdwara Dera Sahib.

Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Additional Secretary Saddique Khurram and Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Perbandhak Committee (PSGPC) President Sardar Sham Singh, along with local Sikhs, welcomed the pilgrims at the Wahga Railway Station.

A special train carrying Sikh yatrees from India reached at the Wahga station, who later left in another special train for Gurdwara Panja Sahib at Hassanabdal.

A member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Perbandhak Committee and the yatrees’ leader Sardar Ragbeer Singh told reporters that India and Pakistan should enhance the confidence-building process and resume bilateral talks. He said the Sikh community in India wanted both the countries to ease the visa process.

According to an EPTB official, the pilgrims would be provided improved facilities and accommodation at the gurdwaras across the country.

During their 10-day stay in Pakistan, the pilgrims will visit their religious places at Gurdwara Panja Sahib (Hassanabdal), Gurdwara Janam Asthan (Nankana Sahib), and Gurdwara Dera Sahib (Lahore).

The main function of the anniversary celebrations would be held in Lahore on June 16, while the yatrees will leave for India on June 17.

Guru Arjun Dev Jee was born on April 15, 1563 AD at Goindwal, a small town on the bank of River Beas in the district of Amritsar. He was the fifth Sikh guru and died on May 30, 1606 during the era of Emperor Jahangir. He was a brilliant student and had command over Gurmukhi, Persian, Hindi and Sanskrit. All his life he preached love towards humanity, equality, respect for all religions and equal treatment of all mankind.

Guru Arjun had compiled the Guru Granth Sahib in 1604. He was later imprisoned and killed in 1606 by Emperor Jahangir.

According to historical facts compiled by the PSGPC, Chandu Lal, a Hindu, was an official during Emperor Jahangir’s rule and wanted his daughter to marry Guru Arjun’s son, Guru Hargobind. However, when Guru Hargobind refused to marry her, it is believed that Chandu Lal instigated Jahangir to kill Guru Arjun.

Guru Arjan was dropped in River Ravi, while a crowd stood above and watched as their leader drowned. His dead body never came up on the surface and it is believed that the guru disappeared alive.

Currently, there is a well inside Gurdwara Dera Sahib at the point where Guru Arjun Dev was dropped in River Ravi. Sikh pilgrims visit that well every year at the gurdwara in the memory of their leader.

On the arrival of the Sikh yatrees, special security arrangements had been made by the government at Wahga, while the citizens received the pilgrims warmly. Special arrangements for currency exchange had also been made at the Wahga station.

HRCP concerned over governance issues, exit of honest officers in Pakistan

By Editorial Staff
Friday, June 11,2010

(LEFT TO RIGHT: Sigourney Weaver, Elisa Massimino, Asma Jahangir, Oleg Kozlovsky, Nora Younis, and Saad Eddin Ibrahim pose for a group photo)

Lahore : The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has expressed alarm at the deteriorating level of governance in the country and has called the departure of the State Bank of Pakistan governor another example of officials, who are unwilling to bow to pressure, being shown the door.

A statement issued by the Commission of Friday said: “The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has watched with concern the deteriorating level of governance in the country. It is true that the federal and provincial governments are facing numerous challenges because of the spread of militancy and the utter chaos they inherited from the previous regime.

At the same time, it is regrettable that nepotism, corruption and self-interest continue to be a priority of the government. It is evident that such malpractices take a heavy toll on people’s right to transparent and efficient governance that alone can bring prosperity and security. The recent departure of the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan on the eve of presentation of the annual budget is another example of easing out honest and upright officials who are unwilling to bow to unreasonable pressures. HRCP believes that the public and the press must continue to hold the government accountable for its decisions of appointments to key institutions. The appointment of the new governor of the State Bank of Pakistan should be watched closely and HRCP urges the government to respect merit rather than personal loyalties while making such crucial decisions. It encourages upright officials to put the interest of the people as a priority and resist pressures that may induce them to ignore malpractices.”

Asma Jahangir,
Chairperson,HRCP

PHC says Hindu Community makes 6% of total population of Pakistan are Denied Social Justice and feeling insecure in Muslim Dominated Country

By Rajesh Kumar (PHP Islamabad)
Thursday, June 10,2010

 PHOTO :Dr.Ramesh Kumar (Pakistan Hindu Council General Body Meeting held on 30th January 2009 at Indus hotel Hyderabad)

Karachi : (PHP) According to Hindu leaders in Pakistan, Hindu community makes 6% of total population of Pakistan are denied social justice in Muslim dominated society of Pakistan. The leaders of Pakistan Hindu Council addressing a press conference here today in Karachi Press Club demanded government of Pakistan to adopt necessary measures to preserve sanctity of its temples and to address an overall the feeling of individual and collective insecurity and uncertainty.

Pakistan Hindu Council a representative forum of Hindu Community in Pakistan demanded Governor of Sindh, Chief Minister of Sindh, provincial ministers belonging to religious minorities and Home Minister Sindh Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza to order the investigation the incident related to the sacrilege of one of the biggest Hindu temple of the province, Sant Neno Ram Ashram at Islamkot Tharparker, the biggest Hindu Temple in Sindh, by a person who destroyed the religious statues that has sent wrong message to the Hindu community and has caused an all pervading sense of insecurity among its members, Sindh in particular and across the country in general.

The PHC leaders were joined by PHC patron Ramesh Kumar Vankani, a former member of provincial assembly of Sindh, accompanied by president Raja Assermal Manglani, finance secretary Jiwat Vaswani and member Engr. Hotchand Karmani to highlight Hindu community concerns in Pakistan.

PHC leaders said that the sacrilegious incident in Tharparkar, which houses the biggest numbers of Hindus, who make up 55 per cent of Tharparkar’s 600,000 population, has made Hindus extremely concerned about their well-being and security because Hindus and Muslims have lived in utmost religious harmony and tolerance for ages. “Though the accused has been arrested he has been given the jail remand instead of being remanded to police so that it could properly investigate the case to unmask the reasons and the real perpetrators”,

Answering a question Dr. Vankwani said that though Hindus make up just 6 per cent of the 170 million population of the country (officially Hindus make up 1.85 per cent, Christians 1.6 per cent and other make up 0.55 per cent of the total population in a country 96 per cent of whose population is Muslim) the crime ratio against them is an un-proportionate high of as much as 60 per cent.

The leaders of Hindu community strongly condemned the murder of Hindu shopkeeper Ramesh Kumar and the kidnapping of his son Vijay in the business district of Quetta city in the province of Balochistan a day before on June 8. They appealed the Chief Minister of Blaochistan Aslam Raeesani and Governor of the province Zulfiqar Magsi to apprehend the culprits and get Vijay released from the hold of kidnappers and to take appropriate measures so no such incident happens again.

Daily Inspiration from Pakistan Hindu Post (PHP)

By Krishna Jaipal (PHP Lahore)
Thursday, June 10,2010

As your mind releases its desires and cravings, it releases the hold that it has on you. You dive deeper, fearlessly into this blazing avalanche of light, losing your consciousness. And as you come back into the mind, you see the mind for what it is, and you are free. You find that you are no longer attached because you see that the binder and the bound are one. You become the path. You become the way. You are the light.

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001)

India relaxes visa norms for select Pakistanis including Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities

Source Sify News
Thursday, June 10, 2010

 (PHOTO : Indian/Pakistan Border near Punjab State of Indian Side with Pakistani Sikh)

New Delhi : India on Thursday relaxed visa extension norms for a select category of Pakistan nationals, including Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities who have come to the country seeking Indian citizenship.

The other categories of Pakistanis for whom norms have been relaxed include women married to Indian nationals and staying in India, and Indian women married to Pakistani nationals but who have returned after their spouse's death or divorce, said the union home ministry.

Visa can also be extended in cases of extreme compassion, a home ministry statement said.

It, however, added that the relaxed visa extension rules will be applicable only for those who are already in India or likely to come here before the end of this year.

The statement said that all states and union territories have been asked not to insist upon validity of Pakistani passports, as per the latest statutory provisions notified by the ministry on May 15, 2010, under the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.

The statement said the decision has been taken after consultation with the ministry of external affairs and the ministry of law and justice.

"Accordingly, it has been decided to grant exemption to a select category of Pakistan nationals from the provisions of Rule 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920. An order to this effect has been notified on May 15, 2010," the statement said.

The ministry added that it is further contemplating to provide this facility to male Muslim citizens of India who migrated to Pakistan during partition leaving behind their family but came back on a valid Pakistani passport, but could not get their passports renewed.

Pointing out that there are thousands of such people in Kerala, the home ministry statement said they were unable to get their passports renewed as the Pakistan High Commission refused to do so in the absence of a Computerised National Identity Card.

"Pakistan issues Computerised National Identity Cards to their nationals and extends validity of passports in respect of only those nationals who possess the identity card," said the home ministry statement.

Some such Pakistan nationals could not get their passports renewed because of sheer poverty, said the home ministry, adding that it has decided to examine the pleas of such people to extend their visa, pending a decision on their pleas for Indian citizenship.

Amnesty International : Blasts Pakistan's Human Rights Record

By Gopinath Kumar (PHP from USA)
Thursday, June 10,2010

(In this file picture taken on June 10, 2010 a militant guards two criminals before their public execution in Bara, the main town in the Khyber tribal region. — AFP)

ISLAMABAD : Millions of Pakistanis in the country's northwest tribal areas live in a 'human rights-free zone' where they have no legal protection from the government and are subjected to abuses by the Taliban, the Amnesty International has said.

In a report titled 'As if Hell Fell on Me: The Human Rights Crisis in Northwest Pakistan', the London-based rights organisation urged the Pakistan government and Taliban to comply with international humanitarian law.

"Nearly four million people are currently living under the Taliban in Pakistan in northwest Pakistan without rule of law and effectively abandoned by the Pakistani government," Amnesty International's interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone said.

"There are still more than one million people who were displaced from their homes in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt by the conflict with the Taliban (and) whose plight is largely ignored and who are in desperate need of aid."

According to Amnesty, at least 1,300 civilians were killed in the fighting in northwest Pakistan in 2009.

A teacher who fled Swat with family in March 2009 was quoted as saying: "The government just gave away our lives to the Taliban. What's the point of having this huge army if it can't even protect us against a group of brutal fanatics? They took over my school and started to teach children about how to fight in Afghanistan.

"They kicked out the girls from school, told the men to grow their beards, threatened anybody they didn't like. Our government and our military never tried to protect us from this."

Cordone said that for years, the tribal areas have been treated as a stage for geopolitical rivalries and are currently in focus because of the conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan and the search for al-Qaeda militants, rather than the rights of the people living there.

"The Pakistani government should not just respond using military force; it needs to provide and protect the basic rights of its citizens living there.""The Pakistani government has to follow through on itspromises to bring the region out of this human rights black hole and place the people of FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) under the protection of the law and constitution of Pakistan," Cordone said.

There is no quick-fix solution for decades of "misrule" and the conflict of the past few years, but the road to recovery starts with recognising the rights of the people of FATA, he said.

Amnesty said the US' use of drones to target insurgents in northwest Pakistan has generated considerable resentment inside the country.

It called on the US to clarify its chain of command and rules of engagement for the use of drones and ensure proper accountability for civilian casualties.

US State Department says, Pakistan is the world’s fifth most unstable country

Source Dawn News
Thursday, June 10,2010

(PHOTO : Ongoing internal conflicts and related security concerns in Afghanistan and Pakistan contribute to their low rankings.)

WASHINGTON, June 10 : Pakistan is the world’s fifth most unstable country, better only than Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and Sudan in that order, says the US State Department.

The department’s Global Peace Index (GPI), released on Wednesday, reports that Pakistan’s overall score deteriorated steadily for the second successive year and it slid three places into the bottom five.

Pakistan’s overall rank now is 145 on a list of 149 countries.

All South Asian nations occupy the lower half of the regional table, headed by Nepal, in 82nd place. India, although better than Pakistan, is also in the red zone and is ranked 128.

Israel rose two places to 144th in the 2010 index. Now it is one place ahead of Pakistan.Ongoing internal conflicts and related security concerns in Afghanistan and Pakistan contribute to their low rankings.

Embroiled in conflict and instability for much of the past two decades, Afghanistan remained far from peaceful during 2009.

A sharp rise in Pakistan’s GPI indicator of the number of people killed in internal conflict and upward shifts in scores for the potential of terrorist acts, the likelihood of violent demonstrations and the homicide rate underline the extent to which the country became embroiled in violence that verged on civil war in 2009.

Frequent suicide bombings and attacks by religious insurgents occurred throughout the year and across the country.

Major offensives by the army against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in Swat valley and in South Waziristan forced more than two million people to flee their homes.

Conflict also increasingly afflicted Balochistan, parts of Punjab, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan in 2009.

The report notes that Pakistan’s score and rank did not fall further in part because of an improvement in the measure of relations with neighbouring countries, albeit from the lowest possible level, and a slight rise in political stability.

The report points out that “overall, government level relations between India and Pakistan are much stronger than in the past, and the fact that India’s recent general election resulted in another government led by the Indian National Congress party means that Indian policy towards Pakistan will remain stable.”

The report notes that when he reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was sacked in 2007, President Asif Ali Zardari “addressed the key source of recent political tensions, resolving a stand-off between the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Mr Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party.”

Pakistani Hindu leaders condemn attack on Saint Nenuram Ashram of Hindu community in Sindh, Pakistan

By Mohammad S.Solanki (PHP Managing Editor)
Thursday, June 10, 2010

(PHOTO : Aashram Shewa in Saint Nenuram Ashram of  Mithi City, Pakistan)

(PHOTO : Sant NenuRam Sahib in Sindh, Pakistan)

USA, June 10, 2010 : Gopinath Kumar,editor-in-chief of Pakistan Hindu Post (PHP), strongly condemned attack on worship place of Hindu community in Sindh State during prayers which was attack on Saint Nenuram Ashram in Mithi town, Pakistan.


Gopinath Kumar said “Islamic terror is rising against religious minorities (Hindus and Christians) in Pakistan which invites immediate attention of Government of Pakistan” and International Communities. Not satisfied by the arrest of man said to be involved in the on a Hindu temple in Mithi on Sunday, We wants a proper inquiry as they believe that “religious attacks have significantly increased in the past”.

KARACHI : Members of the Pakistan Hindu Council called a press conference on Wednesday to protest the attack on the Nainu Ram Ashram Temple in Mithi, Tharparkar, and other similar attacks against Hindus recently.

Patron of PHC Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani accused a man named Foto Bageer of the attack. “He entered the temple to drink water but started breaking and destroying religious material, statues and photos,” Vankwani told The Express Tribune.

Dr Vankwani believes that a proper inquiry into the matter should be conducted as “this is an act of blasphemy that harmed our religious sanctity”. The Hindu community demands an inquiry by the government, he said.

After the attack, Hindu businessmen closed their shops and markets in protest, affecting the entire population of the area, said President PHC Raja Assermal Manglani.

“There is no religious friction between Muslims and Hindus,” he insisted, adding that such attacks are part of a conspiracy to spread hatred between the two communities.

He further added such attacks have increased and Hindus are being forced to convert to Islam, kidnapped for ransom or abducted under the garb of blasphemy.

The Tharparkar region is a Hindu majority area, where they make up 55 per cent of the region’s population of 0.6 million. The Hindus here have lived in peace with the Muslims up till now; but they now fear further attacks on their faith.

The Nainu Ram Ashram, located in the desert part of Tharparkar, is one of the biggest Hindu temples in Pakistan. “The annual mela at the temple attracts over 50,000 people of which 50 per cent are Muslims,” said Vankhvani.

Narrating another similar attack, Vankwani said that a Hindu man and his son were kidnapped and killed in Quetta three months ago. Four men also 250 Hindu women at one of their religious gathering in Kandhkot and several women were forcibly converted to Islam in Sukkur, he said.

“Almost 70 per cent of the Hindu population has been through such attacks one way or the other,” he added.

The Hindus are not just being targeted personally but their religion is also being marginalised as their temples have either been taken over by the government or residents living near the temples, complained Vankwani. There are hardly 10 or 11 Hindu places of worship left in Karachi.

The Hindu community managed to get permission to renovate the 1,000-year-old Shri Varun Dev Mandir at Manora Island during the time of the previous government. “Even now we do not have complete ownership of the temple and the Navy authorities have asked us to pay Rs0.6 million before starting construction,” he said.

Vankwani stressed that, for Hindus, the main issue is security. “We have no cooperation or cover from law and order agencies,” he said. Despite its historically zero crime rate, cases of attacks and violence have gradually increased in Tharparkar and the police have no control over them.

Dr Amarnath Motumal, an advocate and council member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told PAKISTAN HINDU POST that cases of forced conversions in Sindh are increasing by the day.

The victims never come out to complain so there is a shortage of concrete facts and data but proof can be obtained by viewing the list of new conversions to Islam specifically in interior Sindh where the phenomenon is rampant, he suggested.

Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) demand protection from govt. for Hindus in Pakistan

By Rajesh Kumar (PHP Islamabad)
Thursday, June 10, 2010

  (PHOTO : leaders of Pakistan Hindu Council addressing a press conference here today in Karachi Press Club in Pakistan)

Isamabad, Jun 10 : The Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) has asked authorities to ensure the protection of the minority community and its temples even as lawmakers walked out of the Balochistan assembly to protest the killing of a Hindu trader.

The Pakistan Hindu Council has asked authorities to ensure the protection of the minority community and its temples even as lawmakers walked out of the Balochistan assembly to protest the killing of a Hindu trader.

The Pakistan Hindu Council called on the governments of Sindh and Balochistan provinces to protect Hindus in the wake of protests in Mithi town in Sindh against the desecration of an ashram.

Such protection will enable Hindus to play their role in Pakistan's development, PHC leaders said.

PHC patron Ramesh Kumar Vankwani and president Raja Assermal Manglani told reporters at the Karachi Press Club yesterday that a man named Photo Bajeer had entered the Saint Nenuram Ashram at Islamkot in Tharparkar district on Sunday and indulged in "sacrilegious" acts.

Following this, there was a two-day shutdown in Mithi town to protest the desecration of the ashram.

The Saint Nenuram Ashram is one of the most revered temples of the Hindu community in Pakistan.

Hundreds of people, including Muslims, are provided free food from its langar every day.

Fifty-five per cent of Tharparkar district’s population of 600,000 is Hindus and Muslims and Hindus had coexisted in harmony for years with no incident that had hurt religious sentiments, the PHC leaders said.

Photo Bajeer was caught by people and handed over to police. However, police made no effort to obtain his remand or trace the people behind the incident.

Instead, police allowed the court to remand him to judicial custody, the PHC leaders said. Expressing apprehension that there was a conspiracy behind the incident, they alleged a local Pakistan People's Party leader was trying to protect Photo Bajeer by using his influence with the police. (The PHC appealed to the Governor and Chief Ministerof Sindh to take notice of the incident and to expose those behind a "heinous conspiracy aimed at vitiating the peaceful atmosphere of Tharparkar".

The leaders also referred to the killing of businessman Ramesh Kumar and the abduction of his son Vijay in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, on Monday.

Condemning the incident, the PHC appealed to Balochistan Governor Zulfiqar Magsi and Chief Minister Muhammad Aslam Raisani to order the arrest of the killers and recovery of Vijay.

The PHC urged them to ensure the protection of the Hindu community in Balochsitan. Meanwhile, ministers belonging to minority communities in Balochistan staged a walkout from the provincial assembly yesterday to protest the killing and kidnapping of Hindu businessmen in Quetta and other parts of the province.

Minister Jay Prakash Narain drew the assembly’s attention to Monday's incident in which a Hindu businessman was killed and his son was kidnapped in Quetta.

Such incidents had become the order the day and are causing a sense of insecurity among Hindus and other minority communities, he said.

Ministers Basant Lal Gulshan and Jaffar George condemned such incidents and stressed the need for immediate steps to protect the life and property of minorities.

They later walked out of the House to register their protest. On the request of the Speaker, other ministers brought the protesting ministers back to the House.

The assembly was informed that all possible steps are being taken to arrest the killers of the Hindu businessman and the recovery of his son.

Outrage after armed assailants kill Hindu businessman, kidnap son in Quetta, Pakistan

By Rajesh Kumar (PHP Islamabad)
Thursday, June 10, 2010

Islamabad : In yet another incident which showcases the plight of the minority Hindu community in Pakistan, a prominent trader was shot dead and his son kidnapped here by armed assailants.

According to reports, Rakesh Kumar, a rice dealer, and his son Hamesh Kumar were near their shop situated on the Maddrasa Road of Satellite Town, when the unidentified men tried to abduct Rajesh's son.

Rakesh offered resistance to the abductors during which they opened fire injuring him seriously, and took Hamesh with them.

Rakesh was rushed to a local hospital where doctors declared him dead.

Police officials have launched an investigation to probe the motive behind the abduction.

"Four kidnappers, who were in Levies Force uniform, tried to kidnap the son of Hindu trader when he resisted as a result kidnappers opened fire on him," The Nation quoted a senior police official, as saying.

Following the incident, a large number of businessmen and other people belonging to the Hindu community gathered outside the hospital and staged a protest against the government for failing to curb rising crime against Hindus in the provincial capital.

"The incident of kidnapping for ransom is increasing with every passing day and people are being killed but government is reluctant to take action against the involved culprits," Rahim Kakar, President of Anjuman-i-Tajran Balochistan said.

PHP demands resignation of Federal Minister for Minorities on Hindu trader shot dead in Quetta, Pakistan

By Mohammad S.Solanki (PHP Managing Editor)
Thursday, June 10, 2010

Namaste

To *PHP Friends

USA : June 11,2010. The Executive Board and Editor in chief of Pakistan Hindu Post (PHP) based in USA have demanded for resignations of Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti, Federal Minister for Minorities and Mr.Jai Parkash , Minister of Minorities in Government of Balochistan after broad day light attack on Hindus of Quetta in Balochistan, killing 1 renowned rice trader and kidnapping his son by unidentified armed men.

According to reports, a renowned rice trader was gunned down on Tuesday, as he resisted the kidnapping of his son in Quetta on Tuesday. Victim Rakesh Kumar, along with his son Hemash Kumar, was going home after closing his shop in Satellite Town when they were intercepted by unidentified armed men, wearing uniforms of the Balochistan Levies Force. They tried to kidnap Hemash, which Rakesh resisted on which the assailants shot the rice trader and fled. He was taken to a nearby hospital but he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead by the doctors. Afterwards, a large number of Hindus along with local businessmen and shopkeepers organised a protest to condemn Rakesh’s killing and demanded the government arrest his killers as early as possible. *PHP staff report

Gopinath Kumar (Executive Editor for PHP) announced that Shahbaz Bhatti and Jai Parkash must accept responsibility of failure to protect Hindus (Minority) in Pakistan and Resign unless a movement will be started against these opportunists leaders around world.

Hindu trader shot dead, son kidnapped in Quetta of Balochistan, Pakistan

By Gopinath Kumar (PHP from USA)
Wednesday, June 09,2010

 (Members of the Hindu community blocking a road during a demonstration against the killing of a famous Hindu trader and the kidnapping of his son, June 8, 2010. – Online Photo)

QUETTA - A prominent trader, belonging to the Hindu community, was shot dead and his son was kidnapped by armed men in provincial capital within the jurisdiction of Satellite Town Police Station here on Tuesday night, police said.

According to police, Rajesh Kumar, a rice dealer and his son Hamesh Kumar were near their shop located on Maddrasa Road of Satellite Town and intended to go home when unidentified armed men tried to kidnap his son.

Rajesh offered resistance to the kidnappers in order to rescue his son when kidnappers opened fire and injured him critically.

The kidnappers forcibly took away Hamesh Kumar.

Local people took the injured to a private hospital where he succumbed to his injuries and doctor declared him dead. Later the police took the body to government Sandman Hospital Quetta for autopsy.

‘Four kidnappers who were in Levies Force uniform tried to kidnap the son of Hindu trader when he resisted as a result kidnappers opened fire on him’, a senior police officer told The Nation and ,added, that investigation was underway to ascertain the real motive behind the incident and police was making all efforts for safe recovery of the kidnapped person.

A large number of traders and members of Hindu Community reached the hospital as news spread about the killing of the trader.

The traders staged a protest demonstration and burnt tyres on Jinnah Road where hospital is situated and blocked the road for traffic.

They chanted slogans against the government for its failure to maintain peace in the provincial capital.

‘The incident of kidnapping for ransom is increasing with every passing day and people are being killed but government is reluctant to take action against the involved culprits’, Rahim Kakar, President of Anjuman-i-Tajran Balochistan said while talking to media at hospital.

He said traders will stage a demonstration in front of the Quetta Press Club in protest against the incident and would announce the strategy to force the government to maintain peace in the City.

The police personnel reached the spot and managed to disperse the enraged protesters peacefully by providing the assurances about their safety and security

Pakistan : Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) rejects allegations of selling Gurdwara land

By Gopinath Kumar (PHP from USA)
Wednesday, June 09,2010

 (PHOTO : 2010 Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Chairman Syed Asif Hashmi and members of Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and other officials warmly received yatrees at the Wagha Railway Station)

ISLAMABAD : The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) has clarified that neither land of any Gurdwara was given for the development nor it was sold but alleged that Federal Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti has started to blackmail the trust by adopting negative tactics for earning illegal money.

According to sources, the Ministry for Minority Affairs launched a campaign, based on prejudice, for the last one year against ETPB Chairman, Syed Asif Hashmi over not getting incentives.

Sources said that the Federal Minister and Joint Secretary also started a campaign to defaming Pakistan by conveying baseless news to India and these news including the selling of Mandir and Gurdwara.

Shahbaz Bhatti started the opposition against Asif Hashmi when the later, refused to purchase a guest house in Rs. 170 million, which actually had the price of Rs. 100 million. The Federal Minister, later, expressed his desire to buy two new Land Cruisers but Syed Asif Hashmi refused to accept it by terming it lavishness.

On these two reasons, Shahbaz Bhatti started the opposition against Asif Hashmi and even damaged Pakistan’s interests.

The budget of fiscal year 2009-10, which was approved by the Evacuee Trust Property Board in the presence of a Secretary also stopped. It is noted that the Auditor General Report which was presented before public accounts committee (PAC) did not raise any objection against the Board reflects that Syed Asif Hashmi was running matters in a transparent manner and was appreciated by PAC.

According to sources, the board several times clarified that under rule 138 of Act 1925, the land of Gurdwara cannot be given to anyone for the development and it also cannot be sold but baseless allegations continued and the President and the Prime Minister should take action.

Historical Step, 5% Quota for Sindh’s Religious Monitories in all Government Departments, Pakistan

By Gopinath Kumar (PHP , Based in USA) from Amar Guriro (Daily Times)

(PHOTO : Sindhi Hindu Girl in Thar desert, Sindh State, South-East of Pakistan)

KARACHI : Religious minorities in Sindh including Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Buddhists, Bahá’ís and others would get a 5 percent quota in every public sector department of the provincial government, said an official notification issued by provincial chief secretary Friday.

The federal government had issued a notification in March 2009 ordering quota for religious minorities in all federal government departments.

The Sindh government’s notification has brought a new hope for minorities.

The notification (No-SORI-S&GAD-2-1/1994) issued by the chief secretary under the subject ‘Reservation of 5 percent quota for employment of minorities (non-Muslims) across the board in Sindh government services and jobs’ stated that the Sindh government has issued the notification to ensure jobs for non-Muslims as defined in Sub-Section 3b of Article 260 of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan.

“Besides direct recruitment, the notification would also ensure recruitment of the quotas of religious minorities in combined competitive examinations such as Central Superior Services (CSS), in addition to their participation in open merit,” said the notification.

However, the notification would not cover jobs in the provincial government’s temporary projects, recruitments through promotions or transfers, short-term vacancies for less than six months duration and the isolated posts in which vacancies were occasionally available.

Talking to Daily Times, Sindh Minority Affairs Minister Dr Mohan Lal Kohistani said it was a remarkable step by the PPP government for the religious minorities of the province.

“After assuming charge of the ministry, I tried to convince the government to make this move and at last the government has issued the notification,” said Dr Kohistani.

The religious minorities in province have welcomed the move and hoped that provincial government would ensure the implementation of the step.

“The Pakistani Sikhs, especially those in Sindh, were never given jobs and after this move, we
hope to be employed in government departments,” said Sikh Naujawan Sabha Chairman Sardar Ramesh Singh.

Pakistan Hindu Foundation Chairman DM Maharaj also welcomed the decision but said there must be a special quota for the Hindu scheduled castes (formerly called untouchables) of the province.

“The last national census clearly stated that Hindus are the biggest religious minority of Pakistan and the majority of them live in Sindh. Interestingly, the scheduled castes are almost 92 percent of the total Hindu population of Pakistan, but they are never given importance in the quotas,” said Maharaj.

Society for Development and Human Rights Secretary General Akhtar Baluch, who has conducted a detailed research on scheduled castes, said it was unlikely that lower caste Hindus would be given their share in the quota.

“There is a 2 percent quota for minorities since 1948, but they were never given their share. Despite being in majority, they have never been given reserved seats in assemblies,” he said.

The 1998’s National Population Census stated that religious groups other than Muslims represent 3.72 percent of the total population of the country and Article 27(I) of the constitution provides equal opportunity to all citizens including minorities for appointment in the services of Pakistan without any discrimination on the ground of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth.

Pakistan : Sindh Assembly condemns Israel’s Aggression

By Mohammad S.Solanki (PHP Managing Editor)
Wednesday, June 09,2010

(2010 PHOTO : Inside Sindh Assembly of Pakistan)

KARACHI : Sindh Assembly on Tuesday strongly condemned the Israeli Navy’s deadly attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in which at least 19 activists were killed on Monday by passing a resolution.

The resolution said, “This assembly vehemently condemns the deadly Israeli attack on Turkish ship ‘Mavi Marmara’ sailing in international waters, carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, recognises the attack as an unprovoked barbaric crime against humanity, prays for the well being of the injured and extends deepest condolence to the families of innocent people who lost their lives in the heinous and unpardonable assault on 31st May 2010.”

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Minority member Dr.Mohal Lal said the Hindu community was with the Muslims in condemning the incident.

Christian member of the PPP Salim Khurshed Khokhar said the Israeli aggression should be considered as aggression towards the humanity instead of only Muslims.

Terror-Stricken Minority Sikh community and The Noble ‘Servant’ Of Peshawar in Pakistan

By Mohammad S.Solanki (PHP Managing Editor)
Wednesday, June 09,2010

 (PHOTO : Sikh community in Peshawar City , Pakistan)

Peshawar : Khurshid Khan, an eminent 60-year-old lawyer and deputy attorney general of Pakistan, wants to “heal the wounds” of the terror-stricken minority Sikh community in that country. So he does an extraordinary thing at a temple in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Every day when he handles his work as a legal expert, Khan visits a Sikh temple in center of the city, wraps a piece of cloth around his head to show his respect, and sits in the doorway to shine the shoes of Sikhs, whose community has come under frequent attack by Taliban militants over the last few years.

Two months back, militants in Khyber Agency abducted three Sikhs and demanded for a huge ransom for their release. Two were eventually freed, but one, Jispal Singh, was killed in brutal fashion and his corpse left on the roadside in the tribal area.

“I went to offer my condolences to the family of Jispal Singh and that was a turning point in my life,” Khan tells RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal. “I realized that as a Pashtun I should work to ‘heal their wounds’ by becoming their sewadar (servant). I want to give them a message of love and brotherhood, and that’s why every day I am here to shine their shoes.”

Khan says he is himself a landlord and doesn’t even shine his own shoes at his home. But his cause inspires him to sit on the ground on a daily basis and shine 70-80 pairs of shoes.

“I can see the light of love in their eyes for me and my people,” he maintains.

He adds that Sikhs have lived in the area with the dominant Pashtun communities for centuries, pay taxes, and play an important role in the economic progress of the region. But still, he laments, we fail to protect their lives and properties.

They are being killed and kidnapped by the Taliban in Orakzai, Kurrum, and Khyber tribal regions, Khan says, adding that other Pakistanis must stand by them in these critical hours and give them a sense of oneness and brotherhood.

An estimated 28,000 Sikhs live in Pakistan, including about 10,000 who live in the tribal region and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of the conflict-ridden country. In May 2009, Taliban militants destroyed 11 Sikh homes in the Orakzai tribal district after accusing them of failing to pay “taxes.” The ongoing conflict in the Buner and Swat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has displaced more than 200 families.

Muslims Order Christians to Leave Village in Punjab, Pakistan

By Mohammad S.Solanki (PHP)
Wednesday, June 09, 2010

(Khanewal focus ,Its a district, with a population of some 2 million people is located in south-central Punjab province,Pakistan)

KHANEWAL, Pakistan, June 08 (PHP) — The head of a Muslim village last week ordered 250 Christian families to leave their homes in Khanewal district, Punjab Province, local residents said.

Abdul Sattar Khan, head of village No. 123/10R, Katcha Khoh, and other area Muslim residents ordered the expulsions after Christian residents objected too strenuously to sexual assaults by Muslims on Christian girls and women, said a locally elected Christian official, Emmanuel Masih.

Most of the village’s Christian men work in the fields of Muslim land owners, while most of the Christian women and girls work as servants in the homes of Muslim families, said Rasheed Masih, a Christian in the village who added that the impoverished Christians were living in appalling conditions.

The Muslim employers have used their positions of power to routinely sexually assault the Christian women and girls, whose complaints grew so shrill that four Christian men – Emmanuel Masih, Rasheed Masih, his younger brother Shehzad Anjum and Yousaf Masih Khokhar – sternly confronted the Muslims, only to be told that all Christians were to leave the village at once.

“The Muslim villagers came to us with the expulsion order only after Christian women and girls raised a hue and cry when they became totally exasperated because they were sexually attacked or forced to commit adultery by Muslims on a daily basis,” said Khokhar, a Christian political leader.

Khokhar said the unanimous decision to compel the Christians to leave their homes and relocate them was possible because the Christians were completely subject to the Muslims’ power.

“The Muslims had been telling the Christian women and girls that if they denied them sex, they would kick them out of their native village,” Emmanuel Masih added.

Christians created the colony when they began settling in the area in about 1950, said Anjum. Since then the migration of Muslims to the area has left the Christians a minority among the 6,000 residents of the village, said Emmanuel Masih.

“There is no church building or any worship place for Christians, and neither is there any burial place for Christians,” Emmanuel Masih said.

He said that the Rev. Pervez Qaiser of village No. 231, the Rev. Frank Masih of village No. 133 and the Rev. Sharif Masih of village No. 36, Mian Channu, have been visiting the village on Sundays to lead services at the houses of the Christian villagers, who open their homes by turns.

Asked why they didn’t contact local Katcha Khoh police for help, Emmanuel Masih and Khokhar said that filing a complaint against Muslim village head Khan and other Muslims would only result in police registering false charges against them under Pakistan’s notorious “blasphemy” statutes.

“They might arrest us,” Khokhar said, “and the situation would be worse for the Christian villagers who are already living a deplorably pathetic life under the shadow of fear and death, as they [the Muslims] would not be in police lock-up or would be out on bail, due to their riches and influence, very soon.”

Couples Charged with ‘Blasphemy’

That very fate befell two Christian couples in Gulshan-e-Iqbal town, Karachi, who had approached police with complaints against Muslims for falsely accusing them of blasphemy.

On May 28, a judge directed Peer Ilahi Bakhsh (PIB) police to file charges of desecrating the Quran against Atiq Joseph and Qaiser William after a mob of armed Islamists went through their home’s garbage looking for pages of the Islamic scripture among clean-up debris (see “Pakistani Islamists Keep Two Newlywed Couples from Home,” May 27).

Additional District & Sessions Judge Karachi East (Sharqi) Judge Sadiq Hussein directed the PIB police station in Gulshan-e-Iqbal to file a case against Joseph and William, newlyweds who along with their wives had shared a rented home and are now in hiding. The judge acted on the application of Muslim Munir Ahmed.

Saleem Khurshid Khokhar, a Christian provincial legislator in Sindh, and Khalid Gill, head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance in Punjab, said that police were threatening and harassing relatives and close friends of Joseph and William to reveal their whereabouts.

Islamists armed with pistols and rifles had waited for the two Christian couples to return to their rented home on May 21, seeking to kill them after the couples complained to police that the radical Muslims had falsely accused them of desecrating the Quran.

The blasphemy laws include Section 295-A for injuring religious feelings, 295-B for defiling the Quran and 295-C for blaspheming Muhammad, the prophet of Islam – all of which have often been misused by fanatical Muslims to settle personal scores against Christians.

Maximum punishment for violation of Section 295-A, as well as for Section 295-B (defiling the Quran), is life imprisonment; for violating Section 295-C the maximum punishment is death, though life imprisonment is also possible.

In village 123/10R in Khanewal district, Anjum noted that it is only 22 kilometers (14 miles) from Shanti Nagar, where Muslims launched an attack on Christians in 1997 that burned hundreds of homes and 13 church buildings.

Yousaf Masih added, “Muslim villagers have made the life a hell for Christians at village 123/10R.”

END

14 Year Old Pakistani Christian Girl Raped and Kidnapped By Muslim Men

By Rajesh Kumar (PHP, Islamabad)
Wednesday, June 09, 2010

 (PHOTO : Alleged rape victim Sidra with her father, Pakistan)

SHEIKHUPURA, PAKISTAN  -- Sidra Sarwar, a fourteen-year-old Christian girl, has been allegedly raped by three Muslim men and held in captivity for about three months, ANS has learned.

According to Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan (SLMP), Muhammad Khalid, a Muslim man used indecent language against her when she was walking through the local fields in August 2009.

The organization then alleged that Khalid and two accomplices kidnapped Sidra at gun point on August 28, 2009 at 5 pm.

The ministry said that each of the three kidnappers allegedly raped Sidra for a month. The SLMP said that Muhammad Khalid married Sidra after she became pregnant to avoid being prosecuted.

SLMP said Sidra managed to escape from captivity and reached her family on December 20, 2009.

“The poor family tried best to get a case registered against Khalid and his fellows but failed. After a month some Christian elders helped Sidra and pressurized local police and finally the Police First Information Report was registered against the culprits on January 20, 2010”, said Sohail Johnson, Chief Coordinator of SLMP.

Johnson told ANS that when police officers conducted a raid to arrest culprits they (the police) discovered that they had secured a pre-arrest bail.

The Christian rights activist told ANS that the culprits got away with rape and kidnapping after Muhammad Khalid produced wedding certificate in the court.

The SLMP said the police declared culprits innocent on May 13, 2010.

Mr. Johnson told ANS that Sidra is 8 months pregnant. He added, “The girl and her family are allegedly receiving threats from the culprits to stop them from pursuing justice”.

2nd Seminar on Scheduled Caste Rights on May 22, 2010, Pakistan

By Krishna Jaipal (PHP, Lahore)

Dear Gopinathji

       Hope you will be fine, I have send you the pic of 2nd Seminor on Scheduled Caste Hindus Problem. On May 22, 2010.
" The Rights of Scheduled Caste (Hindus) Why the Delay?
Please see an attach file and save in our *PHP Blog

With regards.......
Ramesh Jaipal

(Seminar on Scheduled Caste Rights on May 22, 2010, Pakistan)

(Hindu Panchayati Leader)

(Local Hindu Leader in Rahimyar Khan,Punjab)

(Local District Government Officer , Rajimyar Khan,Punjab)

(Jaag (NGO) Org. Director of Pakistan)

(Ramesh Jaipal from Hare Rama Foundation)

Please Click Below to See 1st Seminar in Islamabad !
Policy forum demands legislation for Scheduled Caste Hindus rights in Islamabad , Pakistan

Peace Protest by Balochs on U.S. capital over Pakistan's nuclear tests in Balochistan

By Uttom Khattari (PHP, D.C.)
Wednesday, June 09, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC : Pro-independence Baloch from the U.S.A. and Canada and their allies and friends will converge in the U.S. capital on May 28 to protest against Pakistan's nuclear tests in Occupied Balochistan in front of the White House.

Every year Baloch in Balochistan and elsewhere stage protests against the nuclear tests to mark the May 1998 tests, though Pakistan officially celebrates the day of infamy.

What : Protest against Pakistan military's tests in Occupied Balochistan and continued U.S. aid to Islamabad.

When : Friday, May 28, 2010 at 12 noon.

Where : White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20050, near Farragut West & North metro stations.

Why : Texas-sized Balochistan was not a part of Pakistan when the British created it in August 1947 but was illegally annexed by Pakistan on March 27, 1948. Fifty years later on May 27, 1998 Pakistan tested its deadly nuclear weapons in Balochistan. Over the years Pakistan has killed thousands of Baloch patriots yearning for indepedence, including former governor and chief minister of Balochistan Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. More than a thousand remain missing. Today billions of dollars of U.S.taxpayers monies are being wasted on Pakistan miitary though the country is the biggest threat to the well-being and security of the U.S.

How : Protesters will gather in front of the White House, unfurl banners for stopping aid to Pakistan and demand independence for Balochistan.

Sixteenth Annual Hindu Unity Day or (Hindu Sangathan Divas) in USA

By Purushottam Singh (PHP, New York)
Wednesday, June 09, 2010

SIXTEENTH ANNUAL HINDU UNITY DAY ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 2010 -- PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Dear Hindu, Sikh Brothers and Sisters:

Hindu Temple Society of North America and Indian American Intellectuals Forum, in cooperation with Hindus of the Tristate area will celebrate Sixteenth Annual Hindu Unity Day (Hindu Sangathan Divas) on the day, date, time and location mentioned below.

DAY AND DATE	Sunday, August 8th
ASSEMBLY TIME	03:30 PM
PROGRAM STARTS	04:00 TO 07-30-08:00  PM
LOCATION	GANESH TEMPLE AUDITORIUM 143-09 Holly Avenue, Flushing, NY 11355 (tel. no. (718) 460-2500
Recognition	General Shankar Roychowdhury, former Chief of Army Staff
Chief Guest	Dr. Subramanian Swamy, former Cabinet Minister, Govt. of India
Keynote Speaker	Tarun Vijay BJP Spokesperson and Member of Rajya Sabha
Speaker	Tapan Ghosh, President Hindu Samhati, Kolkota
Veer Raas Kavi	Gajender Solanki
Honoree	Anand Shankar Pandya Author and leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, India
Honoree	Satya Dosapati, President, Hindu Human Rights Watch
We may add one or two honorees to the list also

You are cordially invited with your family and friends to participate in this Yagna.  Our aim in organizing this celebration  is to create a feeling of pride about our Hindu identity and heritage in our second generation.

More than 800 Hindus from the tri-state areas will join hands in this Yagna.  Several Hindu organizations have also promised to cooperate with us in this endeavor to make the Hindu Sangathan Divas a grand success.

Your presence, advice and cooperation in this effort is of utmost significance.  We request you to please mark August 8^th on your calendar and ensure that you attend this important event with your family and friends without fail.

We have also arranged for your entertainment a few songs and dances to intensify your patriotic fervor.

If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the following: