News

MRG releases dossier on persecution against religious minorities in Pakistan

Report denounces attacks against Shi'a, Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis

Minority Rights Group (MRG) has published a dossier on "severe discrimination and persecution" undergone by religious minorities in Pakistan, "many cases of which go unreported," the human rights organitzation argues. The report includes information relating to the Shi'a, Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis, among other groups.

The dossier includes materials such as a film, Shaheedo Tum Kahan Ho ( 'Oh martyrs! Where are you?), directed by Mohammad Waseem in 2014, which explains the targeting of the Hazara, a Shi'a community that suffers discrimination and persecution in Pakistan.

According to MRG, Muslims comprise about 95% of Pakistan's 200 million inhabitants. Hindus (1.9% of the population) and Christians (1.6%) are the two non-Muslim most numerous communities. These two minorities, the rights group says, suffer attacks against their places of worship and face pressure to abandon their religion.

The Muslim community is far from being homogeneous. 10% to 25% of Pakistan's Muslims are Shi'a. The community "does not in practice enjoy the same status and privileges as the Sunni majority," MRG argues.

"Even more marginalized are the country's Ahmadis," who "while identifying as Muslims, have for decades been designated ‘non-Muslims’ in the Constitution." MRG claims that Pakistani authorities have been denying freedom of worship to the Ahmadis .