U.S. Commission’s Report on Shiite Genocide

U.S. Commission’s Report on Shiite Genocide “The Shiites, being attacked by suicide bombers and being targeted and killed, are facing a dangerous situation.” An American report was released yesterday, 19th July 2013, claiming over seven hundred Shiite Communty people have been Martyred in Pakistan in the past eighteen weeks. “The harsh facts and challenging picture for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s new government”, compiled by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, based on recent studies has warned. The Commission stressed that Islamabad should take strict and solid actions to end the sectarian violence and in order to do this, it is essential that those involved in these activities be arrested, they be brought to Court and end up in prison. These results are based on the 203 incidents reported by civilians in which over 1800 people were injured and over 700 killed. The Commission said these statistics were very severe. It, again, emphasized the importance of Nawaz Sharif’s government to put those behind these crimes behind bars, if they seriously wish to deal with the matter. The report’s notice also pointed out that the Shiite community has been the target of extremism and sectarian violence for several decades. Furthermore, several of the attacks have occurred during their religious days and sacred places. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was formed under the Freedom Act of 1998 and its purpose is to monitor the situations of religious freedom around the world. It also produces an annual report. There was a special reason for it to be introduced into Pakistan. The reason being the monitoring of the sectarian violence and torture on religious basis. The report said, “The Shiite community, being attacked by suicide bombers and being targeted and Martyred, are facing a dangerous situation, whereas the discrimination is going from bad to worse for the Christian, Ahmadi and Hindu communities. There are countless reports of violent attacks and discrimination where these communities are concerned. There were 77 attacks on people from the Shiite community, 54 on Ahmadis, 37 on Hindus, 1 on Sikhs and 16 on people from different religious backgrounds between January and June 2013. In these attacks, at least 635 Shiites were martyred and 834 injured. The Ahmadis are the second most persecuted community in Pakistan of which 22 people were killed in the past six months and 39 injured. The Christians are third, having lost 11 people to violent attacks and having 36 injured. 2 Hindus were killed in the past six months and 4 others injured. The Sikhs lost 1 man to the violence. Another 46 people, belonging to different religious backgrounds, lost their lives in this violence. The report said extremist groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba, Tehreek-e-Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were the ones mostly responsible for this unrest but the government officials aren’t completely innocent either.