AHRC-STM-103-2008
April 23, 2008
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
PAKISTAN: A Hindu worker is lynched for blasphemy as
punishment for
loving a Muslim girl
A 27 year old Hindu worker, Mr. Jagdesh Kumar was
killed by fellow
Muslim workers on the charge of blasphemy in the
presence of more than
two dozen policemen including an officer. The police
and factory
management made no attempt to stop the factory workers
killing the
young man. Some reports suggest that the victim was in
love with a
Muslim girl which was what angered the Muslim workers
who also called
for help from outside the factory. The sad truth of
the fact is that
no political group, even, the one in power has started
to investigate
the incident or provide security to the Hindu
community, who are under
tremendous threat and insecurity by some
fundamentalist Muslim groups.
According to the information collected, Mr. Jagdesh
Kumar belonged to
a lower Hindu caste and his family lives in
Mirpurkhas, a city close
to India bordering the Rajesthan estate. Jagdesh came
to Karachi city,
the capital city of Sindh province, for a better job
some years ago
and joined the NOVA leather factory Korangi, Karachi,
which has 7000
workers about 60 of which are Hindu. Jagdesh was very
close to a
Muslim girl who worked at the factory but supervisory
staff and some
workers, who are members of Islamic fundamentalists
groups were not
happy with the close relationship which developed
between Jagdesh and
the Muslim girl. The relationship showed every promise
of turning into
a lifetime partnership.
On the day of the incident, April 8, 2008, at 10am
some workers and
security guards beat Jagdesh and warned him not to
"involve himself in
so many things". They told him that he must remain
simply a Hindu
worker. After beating him he was produced before Ms.
Naushaba, the
supervisor of the stitching department where he was
working, and
Jagdesh was accused of saying bad words against the
Muslim prophet,
which he denied instantly. But Ms. Naushaba, who was
aware of his
relationship with the girl just softly, slapped his
face and told him
to start work. So at that point things were quite
normal, but at 11.30
am some people from the workers of a religious group
started beating
him again and after some minutes the security guards
of the factory
locked him in a security room which had iron gates.
The workers who
had beaten him, started shouting that Jagdesh was
using bad words
against Islam.
In the meantime Mr. Irfan Iqbal, the director of NOVA,
along with his
managers, Mr. Nadeem, and Mr. Saleem, arrived at the
scene and in
their presence the mob, believing that they had the
support of the
management, broke the iron gates of the room, dragged
Jadgesh out and
beat him with heavy rods, stones and hammers. The
management watched
the incident without interfering. In the meantime some
people called
the police and initially only four policemen turned up
in a police
jeep. Later they were followed by two more jeeps
carrying officers who
all stood by and watched the lynching. The police and
the management
remained spectators while the beating continued from
11.30 to 12.10
inside the factory compound. Witnesses from the Hindu
community,
residing at Lyari town, reported that even when the
fanatics drove
screwdrivers into Jagdesh's eyes neither the police
nor the management
intervened. When Jagdesh was finally handed over to
the police he was
dead. The police refused to enter a First Information
Report (FIR) by
the family of the victim, but later on filed their own
FIR after one
day had passed.
Jagdesh was beaten beyond recognition and as a result
his body was not
shown to his mother, who is still in a state of semi
unconsciousness.
The family was first pressured by the management of
the factory and
police not to enter the case of killing by lynching.
Then some Muslim
religious groups persuaded the Hindu community
residing in Marwari
Mohalla, Lyari town, Karachi, not to file an FIR or
report it to the
press otherwise whole Hindu community, and
particularly 60 Hindu
workers working in the factory, will face more bloody
incidents in the
name of blasphemy charges. The management of the
factory has since
stopped sending its bus to cater for 40 Hindu workers
from Marwari
Mohalla. The Marwari Mohalla has a population of 2000
Hindus who are
residing in more than 200 houses in a big compound.
The members of the
community are so scared that they locked themselves in
the compound
because of a Muslim fundamentalist sectarian group who
is known as a
militant organization.
The police have arrested three persons, two from Sunny
Tehreek (ST), a
militant sectarian organization, and one from the
Pasbaan
organization. However, the Korangi 4 police station is
providing
protection to the perpetrators by not arresting the
other persons who
were very much visible in the movie which recorded the
whole incident
with different cameras installed in and outside the
factory. It is
alleged that two arrested persons, Mr. Waqas and Mr.
Usman of Sunny
Tehreek, are notorious and have been involved in cases
of murder,
attempt to murder, rape and other crimes, but are
employed by the
management of the factory. Mr. Sarwer Nadeem, the
manager, along with
these two persons is terrorizing the employees,
particularly young
women who are generally employed on piece rates. The
third arrested
person, Mr. Hashim Makrani, belongs to Pasbaan, also a
religious
organization. There is a 300 strong group of ST
members in the
factory.
It is believed that the police are destroying the
evidence against the
other perpetrators and arrested persons. The Korangi 4
police station
has appointed Mr. Ulfat Husain, Assistant Sub
Inspector, as
investigating officer who is very close to the
management of the
factory. On the other side, the factory management is
saying that
there is no video recording of the incident as their
cameras were not
working at that time.
One day before his killing, Waqas and Usman and some
other persons
from ST threatened Jagdesh not to come back to the
factory otherwise
he would face exemplary punishment. Jagdesh complained
about this
threat to his seniors, particularly his supervisor,
but no action was
taken.
The provincial government of Sindh has still not
started an
investigation into this incident. When contacted, the
Minister on
Minority Affairs, Mr. Daya Ram, he said he had heard
about the case
but did not have detailed information. Later, he said
that he had
informed the prime minister about the incident and the
PM assured him
that he would look into the case. After the passing of
many days,
neither the minister nor the provincial government has
done anything
in the case. Even the Pakistan Peoples' Party, a
secular party in
power, is also not taking up the case or even issued a
statement
because of the involvement of powerful religious
groups which the
Party does not want to annoy.
Different Muslim religious parties including, Sunny
Tehreek, Jamat e
Islami, have acknowledged the incident but other than
condemn the
matter, have not taken any action. This is the same
situation with
different NGOs who claim to represent civil society
but whom, as yet,
have not issued any press statements. Only the Human
Rights Commission
of Pakistan has issued a statement.
The dark aspect of the incident is that extreme,
militant Muslim
organizations will use the tool of blasphemy as the
best way to keep
religious minority groups under pressure. This will
continue if the
state does not rein in the misuse of the blasphemy
law. The
conspicuously indifferent attitude of the coalition
government of the
Pakistan Peoples' Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N,
on the issue of
killing a young man just because he was in love with a
Muslim girl,
will turn country into an intolerant society and no
one, not even the
political parties, will be spared by the militant
groups.
The government of the Prime Minister, Syed Yousaf Raza
Gillani, should
immediately probe this case of the killing of a young
Hindu man on the
charges of blasphemy. The government must take action
before the
formation of a probe commission by judges from higher
courts. The
police officers and the factory management that stood
by and watched
this young man being beaten to death must be brought
before the law
and punished accordingly.
The demand for a probe commission consisting of judges
from higher
courts is very much pertinent as the incident is of a
heinous crime
where the government and state has remained inactive.
This will be a
test case in which the newly elected government will
either show its
commitment for the rule of law or adopt the course of
political
expediency.
# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a
regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying
human rights
issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded
in 1984.
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