The persecution of Pakistan’s Christians is not confined to jihadists

The Taliban, which operates by stealth, and thousands of highly visible crowds are both destabilising Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s power base – and their common enemy is the country’s Christians

• OMAR WARAICH

The Jamaat ul-Ahrar Taliban offshoot claimed responsibility for the Lahore bombing AP

In 2011, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was slain by his own police bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri.

Taseer had been defending the rights of Aasia Bibi, a poor Christian farmhand, dubiously accused of blasphemy.

For Qadri, Taseer’s stand represented an act of blasphemy itself. “The punishment for blasphemy,” Qadri sneered, as he was carted away to jail by his police colleagues, “is death.”

Two months later, unknown assailants near his mother’s home in Islamabad killed Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian member of the then Pakistani cabinet.

Four months after that, another Shahbaz – Taseer’s third son – was targeted by militants who kidnapped him near his home in Lahore. Meanwhile, for large numbers of vocal Islamists, Qadri was hailed as a hero, with his supporters constantly clamouring for his release.

A few weeks ago, things changed. Qadri was quietly executed for murder. In terms of the law, the decision was easy: he had proudly confessed to his crime. But politically, the judges who passed the verdict exhibited great bravery. One of them even had to flee, of all places, to Saudi Arabia to find safety.

A couple days later, Shahbaz Taseer was discovered, deep inside Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province. Things started to look up for Pakistan and the rule of law

http://www.indepedent.com

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