Living in fear
By Arun R. Zaheeruddin • Jul 1st, 2008 • Category: Misc • 3 CommentsChristians living in Pakistan with their pacifist stance on the socio-political landscape of the country live in constant fear. For them, life is a simple pleasure they are afraid to enjoy. Recent abduction of sixteen individuals from a small Christian colony in Peshawar has sparked mixed reactions amongst the government officials and the international media. The people had gathered to celebrate the birth of a baby boy so promptly disrupted by raging gunmen and taken into a truck. They protested, but were kicked and punched. Now released from captivity, they live in trauma that can’t be undone.
When the media was so affixed on the news of the Bhutto assassination at the start of this year, little did anyone know that a Christian doctor had been taken hostage. The doctor was none other than a secretary of a church diocese. The family scavenged areas around Bannu, where the doctor worked, in fears he had been taken hostage by fundamentalists. Surely he was, but even the Taliban knew nothing of his whereabouts. They denied they had anything to do with it. His family was devastated when no reports came for a month and just when hopes ran dry, the doctor was released from captivity on 2 January, a month and a few odd days.
The ordeal the doctor defines is a complete contrast of what the media portrays of such abductions. The doctor wasn’t taken in by the Taliban themselves but captors who wanted to be recognised by the pro-Islamic political factions of the country, most notably Baitullah Mehsud, as worthy mujahideen. The kidnappers had thought that by abducting a Christian official they might earn respect amongst the fundamentalist crowds. Playing on a video-cassette, the captors would show the doctor Islamic videos teaching young men to employ means of Jihad upon infidels to try to convert the doctor to the religion but he would refuse. These videos were the same tool used to brain-wash these men into kidnapping people of lesser-minorities like the doctor himself.
When Mujlis-e Shoura, a 10-member leadership council for Islamic militancy was informed of the kidnapping, they demanded for the man’s release. Where the captors had thought of impressing these very men who demanded the doctor’s release, they demanded money for his release as an apologetic reason of his abduction. They pondered over failing to earn respect as militants themselves and planned on profiting from their doings. God knows what happened in the days to follow but the captors blindfolded the doctor and released him in a surprise move without taking ransom.
Standing in the sunshine, unharmed, the doctor realised one thing. It’s not just the Taliban that roots fears in the hearts of many-a-Christians in the nation’s troubled province but the new wannabes, who have been educated to do so by the DIY video-cassettes circulating around towns. Sleeping, celebrating a child’s birth or even praying, minorities in Pakistan now live a life of constant fear that no one dares to address or would the future for these minorities be to observe their prayers in hiding until all churches, mandirs or gurdwaras are razed to the ground.
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Hi Zaheeruddin,
Does what you say is true about christians? You cannot generalise on the basis of one incident in FATA. does what you say is true of entire country?
Whatever I have written in this article happened to none other than my own father. That’s his story. Believe it or not, there are instances of abuse to Christians that go unnoticed in the country especially in the NWFP and yet when it is reported, the media is said to be having a good day out of it all.
In fact, 80% such cases do not get printed in black-and-white and nor reported on the television. I learned this the hard way.
Arun R. Zaheeruddin, it will be a lie and an act of deception on my part to pretend that I or most of the better informed citizens in Pakistan are not aware of such unfortunate violations of basic human right against our own fellow citizens. It is also an unfortunate truth that we the majority has lost courage and basic human decency to protest and to condmn and stop by any means such gross violations of citizens’ rights on the basis of their ‘belief and faith’; and we have the gal to so unashamedly criticise the rest of the world for their bias. This is extreme bigotry and I am part of it and at the same time ashame of my cowardice. This might console you a little that with this speed and our this indifference we will soon be in your situation; only difference will be your sufferings are not of your choice whereas ours will be due to our contributory negligence (as they say!).
I the meantime, please, count me as a friend who mourns with you these sad and unfortunate incidents in our country.