KARACHI: The irony could not be more cruel. The well-known symbol of a kite accompanying the slogan “aqliyati umoor” (minority affairs) is emblazoned on the walls of Michael Town, but its small Christian community — a little over 2,000 people — is reminded every day how little their lives, their property, their very right to exist even, are worth to the political forces that control Karachi.

It was never easy for them in this low-income locality in Korangi, where most of the 300 houses with Christian residents are located in eight narrow, adjacent lanes. Poverty and prejudice combined to keep them on the margins. While the Muslims got water in the pipelines, their enclave did not, and they had to buy water from tankers. The Christian residents, unlike the Muslims, could not hold religious gatherings in the communal ground, out of fear of causing offence to the residents of the imposing madressah overlooking the site. Shops owned by the Christians were not patronised by the Muslims. “We’ve always lived separate lives,” said Naseem Gul, 22, who belongs to the minority faith. “Although there was no social intermingling as such, children from both communities played cricket together, and relations were civil.”

But things took a turn for the worse on Sept 23 last year in the aftermath of the devastating suicide attack on Peshawar’s All Saints Church the day before.

In the emotionally fraught atmosphere that prevailed at the time, when Christians all over the country were taking out processions to condemn the atrocity that had been carried out against their community, in Michael Town, a procession was attacked on the pretext that stones had been thrown at the local Khulfa-i-Rashideen mosque, an allegation refuted by the Christians. In the melee, a Muslim man, Nazar Iqbal, was killed.

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Nearly 10 months on, in the quiet of Michael Town’s small Nasri Baptist church, where a cross is painted on the wall behind the wooden lectern and two bunches of red plastic roses are the only adornment, a few members of the community sat and recalled the mayhem of that day and the sense of alienation it engendered.

The mob went on a rampage, setting fire to property belonging to the Christians, burning holy books and ransacking their homes.

Four or five houses were gutted, several motorcycles were burnt. Azra Yaqoob was at home with her two small children when several people barged in. “My seven-year-old son burst into terrified sobs and threw himself at one of the men, clinging to his legs and begging them to spare us. That mercifully stayed their hand, and they left, putting out the fire they had set to our car,” she said.

“Three hundred Christian families fled their homes; we took refuge with members of our family elsewhere in the city,” said Javed Bhatti, who runs a local provisions store. Three Christians were charged with and and arrested for Iqbal’s murder.

Members of their community claim that they witnessed him getting accidentally trampled to death by the Muslims themselves. “There was such chaos that day that it’s impossible to pin the blame on anyone,” said Shahid Bhatti, the lawyer for one of the accused. Seventeen Christians were charged with rioting although only three of them could be apprehended.

The attack had left the Christian community too frightened to return. In order to facilitate a rapprochement, deputy commissioner of Karachi’s district east called a meeting between representatives of both communities at his office on Oct 4, last year. There, said the Christians, they witnessed the will of the majority – in collusion with the state – ride roughshod over the minority.

They were compelled to acquiesce to humiliating terms in the larger interest of being allowed back into their homes. According to the terms of the ‘agreement’, the locality known as Michael Town (although sometimes referred to as Chhoti Essa Nagri) since its establishment over 30 years ago would henceforth be called ‘Khulfa-i-Rashideen Colony’.

Another clause stipulates: “The loudspeakers will be removed from the [exterior] of Church immediately just today.”

(According to Mufti Ghulam Chishti, qari of the area’s Khulfa-i-Rashideen mosque, “There’s no restriction on the use of loudspeakers on our mosque because Pakistani law allows it. But the law doesn’t allow minorities to propagate their religion.” The Christians contend the loudspeakers were needed only because the church is small and worshippers often spilled out into the street.)

The meeting minutes showed that although the matter of compensation had been referred to the Sindh government’s finance department, it was decided that Rs0.5 million would be immediately given in compensation to the family of the deceased, Nazar Iqbal, and Rs50,000 each to the three injured from the “Relief Fund”. Those compensated for their injuries were all Muslim.

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None of the Christians who were injured — including at least four who received serious injuries — in the rioting at the hands of the far larger Muslim community, has received any compensation. At least 30 homes were looted, but no FIR was registered. “Jewellery, money, entire dowries were stolen, but the police mocked us when we went to file FIRs,” said one resident bitterly.

Applications to local administration personnel and political parties have borne no fruit; the only support was shown by PPP’s minority wing’s Mushtaq Mattoo who tried, unsuccessfully, to get his party to address the issue.

Korangi deputy commissioner Zubair Channa says the matter has not been resolved, because there is no consensus on how much compensation is rightfully due to each claimant.

Meanwhile, the community has been warned not to give evidence in the trial of the men accused of Iqbal’s murder. “We don’t even attend the hearings,” said a resident. The three Christians who were charged with rioting have been released on bail but cannot come back to their homes for fear of reprisal attacks.

“We go about our business keeping our heads down, and trying to avoid any confrontation,” said one of the residents. “They taunt us, knowing we can’t retaliate. None of us leaves our homes after sunset if we can help it.”

The lines between the two communities are now drawn more sharply than ever. Last Christmas, Muslim religious slogans were scrawled on the doors of the church and festive outdoor decorations were broken. Even cricket is no force for harmony: boys from the Christian community are no longer allowed to enter the communal ground.

Buying ‘peace’ at the cost of justice, as Michael Town’s Christian community has been forced to do, sets a dangerous precedent for further marginalising religious minorities elsewhere in the country.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2014