[Marxism] Pakistan: Hindu worker is lynched for blasphemy as punishment for loving a Muslim girl

[Anon Anon]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
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.

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2008statements/1481/


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