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Pakistan: Report Claims Religious Minorities? Situation Is Becoming Worse
18 Mar, 2025
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan notes that discrimination, forced conversion, blasphemy accusations, and violent attacks increased in 2023 and 2024.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan?s report ?Under Siege: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2023/24,? released last week, highlights ongoing attacks on religious minorities, including mob violence, desecration of Ahmadiyya graves, arbitrary detentions, and forced conversions of Hindu and Christian women and girls. It notes that the situation worsened in 2023 and 2024 with respect to previous years.
The report detailed that by October 2024, over 750 individuals were imprisoned on blasphemy charges, most of them likely fabricated. Additionally, at least four faith-based killings were documented, three of which involved the Ahmadiyya community.
A major concern raised in the report is the widespread use of social media to incite violence, particularly in cases of blasphemy. The HRCP report points to two notable mob attacks on the Christian community in Jaranwala and Sargodha, which were fueled by social media posts.
Despite investigations into these incidents by the Special Branch in Punjab, no meaningful action has been taken against the groups orchestrating these false blasphemy accusations, the HRCP report remarked.
Furthermore, the report highlighted the impact of radical Muslim clergy, the insufficient compensation provided to victims of mob violence, and the lack of legal assistance available for individuals accused of blasphemy.
(bitterwinter.org)
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