Islamabad, July 14 (IANS) Poor and marginalised communities, especially Christians prosecuted under the Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, have been affected by corruption in Pakistan’s criminal justice system, a report has detailed. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisation, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), stated in a report that many Christians accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are not able to get effective legal representation or cha…
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Kolkata, July 12 (IASN) Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saugata Roy on Sunday reiterated his party’s opposition to the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), asserting that it would infringe upon the rights of minority communities. His remarks come on the back of West Bengal government constituting a high-level committee to prepare the draft UCC Bill for the state.Speaking to IANS, Roy reacted to the state government’s decision to form the panel, saying, “…We oppose the Uniform Civil Code because it will…
Dhaka, July 11 (IANS) While Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan has long been associated with mass killings, displacement and systematic repression, Brussels-based Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) said that the religious dimension of the violence remains insufficiently recognised. The organisation noted that Hindu communities were disproportionately targeted and persecuted on the basis of their religious identity, a report has stated.The debate over formally recognising the vi…
Islamabad, July 4 (IANS) A leading minority rights organisation expressed grave concern over the custodial death of a Christian man in Pakistan who was accused under the country’s blasphemy laws, saying the allegations against him were never heard in court and his guilt was never proven.According to the Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM), the death of 61-year-old retired government employee Amir Peter on July 1 is a “stark indictment of a system where accusation becomes punishment, and delayed …
Washington, June 27 (IANS) President Donald Trump used a gathering of conservative Christian activists to declare that religion is “back” in the United States, highlight his administration’s policies on religious liberty and social issues, and warn that what he described as the rise of “communism” posed the greatest threat to the country.Addressing the annual Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference in Washington, Trump said his administration had moved swiftly to reverse poli…
Islamabad, June 26 (IANS) Members of a growing organised blasphemy business network in Pakistan are actively attempting to trap people into committing blasphemy on social media. Some Pakistani officials, including members of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), conduct work on behalf of the blasphemy network, a report said. “The main purpose here is to extort bribes from the target in exchange for dropping criminal charges. In the custody of such people, the treatment is appalling. At …
London, June 25 (IANS) Bangladesh is witnessing an escalating wave of attacks on religious minorities, particularly Hindus, while hundreds of incidents targeting Christians have also been reported. The country ranks 33rd on Open Doors’ World Watch List, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution, a report has highlighted. A report in the UK’s leading Christian magazine ‘Christianity’ cited the case of Kashem, a Christian spiritual leader in Bangladesh…
Islamabad, June 25 (IANS) A Christian man was stabbed to death by a Muslim co-worker in Pakistan after objecting to his drinking water from a cooler used by other labourers as he was from the minority community, a report has detailed. Local pastor and rights activist Saleem Ghouri said Siddique Masih (40) worked as a daily wage brick loader along with his brother, Rafique Masih, at different brick kilns in Kasur district of Pakistan’s Punjab province.Ghouri said that the two brothers were at Ayy…
Islamabad, June 19 (IANS) The killing of an elderly Sikh couple inside a gurdwara in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has sparked fears among religious minorities, who have said they have long been targeted by radical Islamist groups, a report has detailed. On June 17, Jagannath Wanti (72) and his wife, Asa Wanti (69) were inside a gurdwara in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan when unidentified assailants on a motorcycle opened fire and fled, police said.Sahib Singh, a Sikh elder from Peshawar said, “The…
Washington, June 5 (IANS) The European Union (EU) has faced growing criticism for allegedly enabling Pakistan’s severe abuses of human rights standards since at least 2014, with observers repeatedly warning of the consequences and calling for significant change. Brussels-based organisation ‘Human Rights Without Frontiers’ (HRWF), for example, described the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP-plus) status granted to Pakistan as “the bad deal between the EU and Pakistan”, adding that “The …