Pakistan’s government should ensure the security of the country’s religious minorities from judicial injustice and attacks by militants, Human Rights Watch has said today in the World Report 2015.
It said violent attacks on religious minorities rose significantly in 2014 as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government’s failed to ensure protection for religious freedoms.
“Pakistan’s government did little in 2014 to stop the rising toll of killings and repression by extremists groups that target religious minorities,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government is failing at the most basic duty of [[any] government – to protect the safety of its citizens and enforce rule of law.”
In the 656-page world report, its 25th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth urges governments to recognize that human rights offer an effective moral guide in turbulent times, and that violating rights can spark or aggravate serious security challenges. The short-term gains of undermining core values of freedom and non-discrimination are rarely worth the long-term price.
Journalists who cover counterterrorism issues or write critically of the military faced increasing threats, Human Rights Watch said. In April, unidentified gunmen in Karachi seriously wounded television presenter Hamid Mir, an attack that his employer, Jang/Geo, the country’s largest media conglomerate, blamed on agencies.
Abuses against women and girls – including rape, murder through so-called honour killings, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage – remained common in 2014. In July, religious extremists committed a series of acid attacks on women in the Balochistan province.
On June 30, the military launched an offensive involving more than 30,000 troops against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in North Waziristan. Civilian casualties remained hard to assess due to severe military restrictions on independent media access to the conflict zone. The conflict has displaced an estimated one million people in squalid displacement camps where the government has failed to provide adequate supplies of potable water, sanitation facilities, and health care. In July, the government passed the Protection of Pakistan Act, an overly broad counterterrorism law that violates international human rights standards and provides the security forces a legal pretext for abuses with impunity.
