THIS year’s Holi has brought various bits of good news to the country’s Hindu community, leaving one wishing that the festival marks a turnaround in Pakistan’s treatment of its minorities rather than just a series of one-off happy events.

First, Veerji Kolhi, the tireless campaigner for the rights of the Tharis, who was convicted by a lower court on trumped-up murder charges, was freed by the Sindh High Court after remaining behind bars for nearly a year.

Whether it is bonded labour or forced conversion or rape and murder, Veerji Kolhi has a sparkling track record of standing by the oppressed and the wronged, perhaps because he is not found wanting in empathy, having been a part of a bonded labour family as a child.

How long will this feel-good factor continue is anybody’s guess given that forced conversions have not been halted.

It is to the credit of young campaigner Meena Gabeena, who knew Kolhi personally due to her relief work in Tharparkar over the years and believed in his innocence, that she knocked on all doors possible to see the wrongfully jailed lawyer-activist finally step out of prison.

The Kolhi family were in the bondage of a local landlord who demanded a sum of Rs65, 000 for their release, an amount beyond their means then, Meena wrote in her blog last year. They slaved for four years before the notable Shakeel Pathan, the late anti-bonded labour activist, enabled their release.

Today, Veerji Kolhi is himself a seasoned campaigner and his release will bring hope to multitudes of the voiceless oppressed as will the election of his sister Krishna to the upper house of parliament on a PPP ticket. What a remarkable journey and story of determination and courage.

Veerji Kolhi’s release came towards the end of the week, and a day earlier, to the relief of the Hindu community in Mithi, the Sindh home minister and the IGP announced at a joint news conference the arrest of the killers (and abettors) of the two Hindu traders who had been shot dead recently.

The murder of Dilip Kumar and Chanda Kumar ostensibly during a robbery, had sent shockwaves in the community and many in Mithi seemed pessimistic the crime would ever be solved and the perpetrators arrested.

It was, therefore, a positive development that the community was informed that all those involved in the crime are behind bars, the murder weapon has been recovered and the money-stuffed wallet of one of the victims has also been found.

This news was even more welcome after initial rumours that the murderers would not be arrested as they had some influential political backers. However, one troubling loose end remained. The only eyewitness of the crime, himself a Hindu, is said to have committed suicide.

Nagzi Meghwar’s body was found floating in a water tank in his house in Mithi. One hopes that the investigators find nothing sinister in the eyewitness’s death and that there is sufficient evidence to convict those arrested without the testimony of the only eyewitness.

Nonetheless, more good news continued to come in as an army officer tweeted a letter signed by the administrator of DHA, Karachi, that the “competent authority” had approved allotment of land to build a temple at the request of representatives of the Hindu community.

If these were events were positive, the continued embrace of the Hindu community by top national leaders must have lifted their morale and spirits even as these gestures may not have been more than merely symbolic.

Where PTI leader Imran Khan tweet-greeted the Hindus on Holi, the PPP’s Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari invited many members of the community to Bilawal House and offered felicitations personally. I am sure there were other politicians who did the same and I apologise if I missed their messages.

How long will this feel-good factor continue is anybody’s guess given that forced conversions have not been halted and the community in Tharparkar in particular is often targeted with kidnapping, followed by conversion. This causes them great anxiety.

While this Holi indeed appeared happy for the Hindus, other minorities continued to feel the heat with Christians and Ahmadis both at the receiving end of unwelcome attention. And what Patras Masih and his cousin Sajid Masih received in Lahore was much worse and graver than mere unwelcome attention.

Given that the two young men come from the most dispossessed of the dispossessed in society also means that they are unlikely to get justice. If the attitude of the Punjab deputy speaker in the house was any indication the matter is a non-issue.

The gentleman in question dismissed rather contemptuously Shanila Ruth, a woman member belonging to the PTI, who wanted to raise the ordeal of the Sajid Masih who jumped to escape horrendous torture (or was just pushed out of the window) for refusing, according to him, to sexually assault his young cousin in custody for alleged blasphemy.

Sajid Masih is currently in hospital with multiple fractures and it is a miracle he survived that fall from a fourth floor window of an FIA interrogation room. His statement about what happened there from his hospital bed would drive a dagger through any heart.

The predominantly Christian neighbourhood where the two cousins lived was gripped by fear which spread like wildfire after Patras Masih was alleged to have committed blasphemy and was picked up by police before being handed over to FIA as a smartphone was supposed to have been used for the purpose.

While this episode again underlined the vulnerability of the poor Christians in the country, the lives of the financially and socially far more stable Ahmadis continue to be marred by persecution. Now, lists of Ahmadi government servants are reportedly being prepared on court orders.

One can only hope and pray that these lists will remain confidential and not be used by the state to discriminate against and persecute a set of loyal citizens solely on the basis of their faith.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
abbas.nasir@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2018