Leaders of Christian churches in Pakistan announced that they are in solidarity with the Shia Muslims.
Father Emmanuel Yousaf Mani, national director of the Pakistani Catholic bishops' National Commission for Justice and Peace, urged government leaders to "protect all religious minorities."
"The government must take notice of Shia killings. Nobody has the right to force their beliefs upon others," Mani told.
Mani also addressed the leaders of Sunni Muslims and told them to condemn violence against the Shia Muslims.
An estimated 95 percent of the country's population are Muslim. The other five percent belong to other religious minorities including Christians and Hindus.
Shias are a minority among the Pakistani Muslims, comprising only 20 percent of the total Muslim population in the country. Thus, they are often persecuted and harassed.
Shias have set up roadside camps and have gone on hunger strike, enduring the heat and refusing to eat for 12 hours to protest the persecution and killings. In May, nine Shia Muslims were killed in targeted attacks. In the same month, four Shias who joined a protest in Parachinar were killed by paramilitary police.
"We always blamed terrorists for the bloodshed but now a state institution has proven to be biased against us," said Syed Muhammad Raza, a spokesman for the Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen party, which represents Shia Muslims.
Since 1986, around 80,000 Shias have been killed because of persecution, Raza said.
"Leaders of religious minorities and opposition parties have visited our camps because they believe our demands are genuine," Raza shared, adding, "But the federal government is still silent."
No one understands the condition of being persecuted more than Christians, according to Rev. Majid Abel from Naulakha Presbyterian Church. Being a religious minority in Pakistan, Christians are often targets of attacks, which are rooted from "a history of conflict," Abel said.
World Minority Alliance party founder Julius Salik encouraged the country's leaders to speak out against the attacks on religious minorities. "Targeting any religious faction is against the dignity of the state," Salik said.
source : hawzahnews
