The gangrape of 14-year-old Christian girl Sunita Masih by Muslim zealots in Pakistan’s Faisalabad early this week has left the Christian community in Kerala appalled and speechless.
Sunita was not only gangraped but was subjected to the worst kind of physical torture in an incident which brought back memories of the unpardonable crimes committed on Nirbhaya in 2012 in New Delhi, according to Kevin Peter, president, Christian Association and Alliance for Social
Action, an umbrella organisation of all Christian sects in Kerala.
He said Sunita was tortured for refusing to convert to Islam as demanded by the zealots who kidnapped her from her house. “This is not an isolated incident. Information reaching us from Pakistan says that minority communities are not safe in that country as members of the majority community has unleashed a reign of terror on them,” said Peter.
A joint statement issued by Peter, Joy Abraham (secretary) and Jomer K Jose (Treasurer) of CASA has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately implement the Citizenship Amendment Act passed by the Indian Parliament so that minority communities getting tortured and face annihilation in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan could come back to India, their homeland.
“When the State of Pakistan was formed by partitioning India in 1947, minorities like Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Parsees and Jains constituted 30 percent of the population. But as on date the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has less than 3 per cent of these communities. The remaining 27 per cent were annihilated by genocide or subjected to religious conversion by persecution,” said the CASA leaders.
They said religious minorities including Christians in Pakistan suffer hell from physical and mental torture. “The only job reserved for a Christian in Pakistan is in the military and that too as drainage and toilet cleaners,” they said in the statement.
The statement says that religious persecution of minorities in Pakistan has become a regular feature in that country.
“We saw how Asiya Biwi was tortured under fake charges of blasphemy and sentenced to death by a partisan court in that country. Later she was deported from the country while a minister belonging to minority community was shot dead for speaking truth about the sufferings of the minorities,” they said.
“Thousands of Asiya Biwis and Sunitas get tortured and assaulted on a daily basis in Pakidtan while the courts meant to protect the people look the other way supporting the hunters,” said the CASA leadership.
They pleaded with the political leadership of India to implement the CAA in India, welcome and provide shelter and Indian citizenship to the minorities from the three countries who are getting exterminated there.
