Religious minorities to observe "black day" of protest

Religious minorities in Pakistan will observe a day of protest on Thursday to protest against a recent spate of terrorist attacks on Christian establishments, rights activists told IRIN on Tuesday. "On 15 August we will observe a black day against terrorism," Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All Pakistan Minority Alliance said from Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province. "We are protesting because the government has failed to provide protection." Five people were killed and at least 23 wounded in a grenade attack on a Christian missionary hospital outside the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The attack came four days after six Pakistanis were shot dead in a Christian missionary school 35 km northeast of Islamabad. The school reportedly had 150 foreign students and staff present at the time. Bhatti, who is a leading Christian rights activist, said all the members of the religious minorities would wear black bands and hold peaceful demonstrations in the main cities to register their protest. "The interior and the minority affairs ministers should resign because they have failed to protect the minorities," he added. Asma Jehangir, a noted lawyer and former chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said she could not rule out the possibility of more attacks against Christians, and even against Muslims. "Today it is the minorities and tomorrow it will be everybody," Jehangir said, adding that the Christians were currently being targeted because the terrorists wanted to make international news headlines. "It is big news if Christians or foreigners are killed in such attacks. Who would care if 10 Pakistanis in a market were killed in a bombing?". Jehangir, who has long campaigned for legal reforms to secure more rights and protection for religious minorities, said the government must also tackle the problem of terrorism politically. "There needs to be an administrative solution, but it must go hand in hand with political initiatives so that the issue can be resolved permanently," she maintained. Salim Khokar, a Christian leader in the port city of Karachi, told IRIN that the minorities had submitted a list of their establishments to the authorities in the southern Sindh Province to help the government beef up security. "We were feeling insecure right from 11 September when the United States started its campaign against terror," Khokar said, adding that Christians had become targets for pro-Taliban elements because they were considered to be close to western interests. "These elements consider us closer to the United States and the West, they do not realise that we are Pakistanis too," he said. Minority leaders have also invited mainstream political parties for a dialogue on 18 August to discuss the latest campaign of terror against minorities. Islamic militants have been incensed by President Pervez Musharraf's decision to support the US-led campaign against terrorism, which served to bring about the overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan last year. In March, five people, including the wife and daughter of an American diplomat, died in a grenade attack on a church in Islamabad. Last October, 16 Christians and one Muslim were massacred in a church in Bahawalpur in Punjab Province. Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street journalist, was kidnapped in January and later killed. A car bomb near the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in May killed 14 people, including 11 French nationals working on a submarine project for the Pakistan Navy. "A judicial commission should be set up to probe all such incidents and its report be made public," Bhatti asserted, saying this message had been conveyed to the government for immediate action. Senior Pakistani officials say the government is doing all it can to curb terrorism and provide segments of society with security. They also point out that completely eliminating terrorism is not possible anywhere in the world.