THE story of the Umerkot Hindu community’s long march to Karachi some days ago merits retelling before a wider audience. A large number of Hindu citizens from Umerkot district, as many as 15,000 by their spokesperson’s count, travelled to the Sindh capital to demand respect for their rights — to justice, to protection of life and liberty, and to equality of status as citizens of Pakistan. They succeeded in persuading the representatives of the provincial government to sign a memorandum of agreement for addressing their grievances.

The event offers another example of the state functionaries’ lack of problem management skills and their penchant for allowing routine administrative matters to fester and develop into deadly sores. The immediate provocation to the protesters was the way the police had dealt with the murder of two Hindu brothers from Umerkot, both traders. But their woes had been piling up for quite some time. They referred to a string of attacks on non-Muslim communities, such as murders, kidnappings, forced conversions and attacks on their places of worship in Umerkot and elsewhere in the province.

Their most recent complaint related to the killing of two men in a ‘police encounter’ and branding them as murderers on the run. They argued that no attempts had been made to capture the ‘suspects’ alive and no probe was carried out afterwards.

The marchers made the following demands: a judicial inquiry into the two traders’ murder should be held by a tribunal headed by a superior court judge and the local community consulted on its terms of reference; a thorough probe into instances of kidnapping for ransom and other grievances; and non-Muslim citizens, who constitute a majority in Umerkot, should have a say in the selection and posting of local officials (especially in police).

Why must a community be forced to undertake a long march for the redressal of its grievances?

The demands also focused on the urgent need to investigate Thar’s humanitarian crisis, especially lack of access to food, drinking water and healthcare and the causes and effect of a prolonged drought; the government must implement the Supreme Court directives in the June 2014 judgement; and on the fact that since Sindh departments responsible for minority affairs have ignored the non-Muslims, especially the scheduled castes, a body should be set up to probe the matter.

No sane Pakistani will find anything wrong with these demands. Why must a community be forced to undertake a long march for the redress of grievances that should be addressed as per routine? Three representatives of the marchers and two civil society facilitators held negotiations with the authorities who included three Sindh ministers, the commissioner of Karachi, the deputy commissioner, South, and the DIG police and SSP for Karachi South, and signed the following agreement.

The authorities will redouble their efforts to identify and arrest the killers of the two traders within the shortest possible time.

The report by DIG Sanaullah Abbasi will be shared with the negotiation committee and the victims’ families within four days. If the report is not found satisfactory a fresh inquiry will be ordered.

The victim families will be adequately compensated within two weeks.

The process of setting up a branch of the Citizen Police Liaison Committee at Umerkot will be initiated forthwith.

A joint committee will be set up for action on the marchers’ demands.

The government will ensure that the protesters will not be harassed/intimidated or subjected to penal action.

Just as there was nothing extraordinary about the Umerkot marchers’ demands, what they have been offered amounts to the minimum a responsible government must guarantee its law-abiding citizens. The Umerkot group deserves to be commended for their initiative, though it came only after their cup of patience was about to overflow. The authorities also earned credit by displaying a spirit of accommodation that is quite rare these days.

The Umerkot Hindu community’s plight should be seen in the context of declining standards of protection for the minorities. The killing of Ahmadis and Shia professionals continues unabated and blasphemy cases are acquiring more and more weird forms. The police as a rule are unfriendly and reluctant to extend the victims due protection of law. Those responsible for crimes against the minorities are seldom apprehended and if they are caught the victims are pressurised to make up with them.

The recent killing of a widely respected teacher in Karachi revealed a new stage in organised efforts to punish people for their belief. A fatwa was used to set the stage for Prof Auj’s extermination. The seminary that was alleged to have issued the fatwa declared the document forged. That may be true but forged fatwas are only meant to secure results genuine edicts guarantee. Those determined to go for their rivals under cover of the blasphemy law do not need edicts to justify their grisly deeds. Thus the incident should be seen as a new tactic to legitimise foul murder.

What makes the situation utterly unbearable is the absence of any sign that the state is prepared to protect the victims of religious extremism. The authorities watch the excesses against non-Muslim citizens with indifference that borders on complicity. Like the Umerkot marchers all minority communities hailed the Supreme Court judgement of June last as it stressed the creation of a framework for improving the minorities’ protection. Lack of any sign of implementation of the verdict is adding to the minorities’ sense of despair. Unless the government displays its will to take firm action to ensure respect for the minorities’ rights it will be impossible to hope for a change for the better.

Tailpiece: Dr Tahirul Qadri has reason to thank the libraries department of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for advising 19 universities and institutions in the province to put in their libraries all the books written by him. No reasons for the decision have been given. Obviously, questions regarding the usefulness of these books to students do not arise.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014