Below
is the text of the speech by Shaan Taseer at a Press Conference in Committe
Room G, House of Lords, chaired by Baroness Berridge, on June 28. Shaan Taseer
is the son of the Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, who was assassinated b his
police bodygaurd Mumtaz Qadri on January 4, 2015, as the Governor was about the
get into his car in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan.
Qadri was sentenced to
death at a court held in the high-security Adiyala prison in Rawalpindi.
The murderer's
family said they were very happy that he had committed this crime, and dozens
of people gathered outside the prison chanting pro-Qadri slogans after the
verdict was announced.
The demonstrators were angry that the
Governor had criticised Pakistan’s law against blasphemy. He had supported Ms Sherry
Rehman MP, who introduced a Bill to amend the law to make miscarriages of
justice less likely and remove its death penalty.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished
guests. Thank you for this opportunity.
In the last thirty years, ever since the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, as a result of which, many seminaries were established
and promoted for the purposes of recruitment and indoctrination to fight the
Afghan war, there has been a systematic and premeditated genocide of Shias in
Pakistan by well armed and well trained groups such as the Sipah Sahaba and the
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. This genocide has been witnessed and documented by the UN,
Amnesty International, Human rights Watch, The Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan and various Shia groups in Pakistan and abroad.
They are no accurate numbers, but some online Shia
groups have documented 1,200 reported attacks on the Shia community since 2002.
More worryingly, whereas thirty to forty attacks took place a year until 2011,
in the last three years we have witnessed an average of over three hundred
attacks a year. So the rate of killing has gone up exponentially, possibly
coinciding with the Taliban gaining a foothold in Pakistans Northern Tribal
areas, as well as the groups mentioned above, consolidating their positions
after a ban on them in 2002.
Whereas the mainstream print and electronic media has
described this as “terrorism”, this is not an entirely accurate or complete
depiction of the picture on the ground. The groups who are exterminating Shias
are not doing so to pressure the government or the public into accepting any political
demands. The aim, for which they were formed, is to fulfill their religious
duty to exterminate Shias and to establish a Sunni state in Pakistan.
These aims have been well documented over the years in
many places. Firstly we have multiple Fatwas (religious decrees that are
binding on their followers) to this effect. We also have pamphlets and other
literature calling for the blood of Shias. The leaders of the organizations I
have mentioned above, as well as the clerics of many allied seminaries have spoken
publicly apostatizing Shias, which is all commonly available on social media,
as well as having played on mainstream television. Furthermore, and most
insidiously, the methods employed by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are systematic and
methodical; to ensure the cleansing of a community. First of all they strike at
places of worship. Secondly they target Shia neighbourhoods. Here the Shia
Hazara community in the North of Pakistan is most vulnerable, as they live in
ghettoised neighborhoods and valleys, and as such have seen the worst of this
holocaust. Shias are particularly targeted when travelling together by bus, as
that makes for an easy target. And thirdly, and most sinister, prominent
members of the Shia community are identified and murdered. In the last year
alone seventy Shia doctors were assassinated. Many more have left the country
and sought asylum. So there is no ambiguity as to who is behind the genocide of
Shias and what their motivations are. What’s more, these groups have proudly
taken responsibility for many attacks and promised more.
Once it is established that someone deserves to die on
the basis of religious differences, it doesn’t take long before a religiously
mandated cleansing of Shias transmogrifies into genocide of all minority
communities. And that is what is happening in Pakistan, at an increasing rate.
Ahmedis and their places of worship have been attacked; Christian communities
such as Gojra and Joseph Colony have been burned to the ground. Churches have
been bombed all over the country, Hindu temples burned. My father was not
killed by the Blasphemy law. He was killed for standing to prevent the genocide
of minorities. The Blasphemy law is just one instrument in this bloodletting.
If Aasia Bibi had been a Muslim woman there would not have been such a fracas
over the issue, as there hasn’t been in the case of Junaid Jamshed, a pop star
turned Deobandi television evangelist who made some offensive remarks on
television, or Khalid Chishti, a cleric who desecrated the Holy Book himself, and
placed the evidence to falsely accuse a twelve year old Christian girl. The
blood lust we see in Pakistan today is for the minorities.
I have many Christian friends and it is sad to see
that the current generation, more often than not, give their children Muslim
names so as to prevent a life of discrimination. Right here we see the erosion
of a cultural identity.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a complete denial of
this genocide in all mainstream media. No newspaper or public figure has yet
mentioned the word “genocide” in the context of Pakistan. This is despite the
fact that the Genocide Convention of 1948, to which Pakistan is a signatory,
describes even the intention, the incitement, the attempt or complicitness in
genocide as part of the crime. We do, however, know there is nothing new about
this denial. Experience from most theatres of genocide, including Rwanda,
Bosnia and Darfur, shows that there is always reluctance on the part of society
to acknowledge this crime. The reason for bringing in these comparisons is to
show that Pakistan fits a pattern of behavior that is quite typical of theatres
of genocide, such as the classification of communities, dehumanisation,
ostracisation, organising and arming against them, the preponderance of hate
material, and an apparent immunity to law. In the case of Pakistan, in addition
to these warning signs, we also have the death of thirty thousand Shias.
Unlike the people of Pakistan, my audience lives in a
country where the state protects their rights, and upholds the rule of law. You
all therefore have the ability to express yourself freely without any risk to
yourselves. Can I therefore please take this opportunity to ask you all in the
name of humanity, to raise your voices against this genocide, with the British
government, your MP’s, the Foreign Service, the Pakistan High Commission, the
International media, and the British public. Change can only begin with
awareness.
This is after all a human issue not a Pakistani issue,
and genocide is perhaps the worst thing that mankind can do to itself."
Thank You
