WHY RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN LIVE UNDER FEAR

HCRP’s fact-finding report found that at least three members of the Ahmadiyya community were killed in separate targeted attacks, including an elderly person who was shot dead inside a courtroom.

Nand Lal, a native of Lyari, another one of Karachi’s oldest localities, was kidnapped twice because he stood up against forced conversions. “They had kidnaped some girls from our community, and had converted them forcibly,” he said. “I was very vocal about that.”

Lal said because of this unequal treatment, minorities are pushed into poverty, living with a constant feeling of insecurity. He said some people are even leaving their ancestral homes in Pakistan to flee to neighboring India; He claims 100-200 families from Liyari have settled in Gujrat. “Sadly, the state is not on our side, which is why all this is happening,” Lal said.

He said the incident at the temple traumatized his family. “My wife lives in fear all the time.” However, he is hopeful this time because when the temple was attacked, the government took immediate action to arrest the culprits and increase security around the temple. He remembers the days when there was peace in Pakistan and religious differences were not a cause for conflict. He prays for that day to return.

“We have faced countless problems as a religious minority,” he said. We are being treated as third-fourth-class citizens.”

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