Indian Shias to expose Pakistan on minorities

Story by  ATV | Posted by  AVT • 3 Years ago
Shia Muslim signing petition to the UN
Shia Muslim signing petition to the UN

 

Malik Asghar Hashmi/New Delhi

The world may have forgotten the brutal murder of 11 Hazara Shias by terrorists in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan, after Prime Minister Imran Khan met with their families, and the delayed burial, yet the Indian Shias are alarmed at the pattern of extermination of their community in that country.

Speaking with Awaz the Voice, Syed Hassan Mehedi, secretary general of the All India Husseni Shia Fund, said their organization is going to intensify its campaign of exposing Pakistan’s tacit policy of discrimination against and persecution of the religious minorities including Shias.

The AISHF was set up in 1947 by the notables of the community for the sole purpose of helping widows and children to have a better life though education and economic uplift. However, its agenda changed in 1988 following the massacre of Shias in Parachinar (Gilgit Baltistan). In that incident, 20 Shias were killed in a mosque and the Pakistan Army was actively abetting the incident. The incident changed the priorities of AISHF. Though even today, it continues its social work component, the organization has taken up the responsibility of exposing Pakistan’s policies against the minorities on the global level.

Mehedi had also met the Iranian supremo Ayatollah Khomeini and sought his support for his mission. Besides, he has attended conferences in many parts of the world on the issue of atrocities on Shia community in Pakistan. The AISHF works to raise the awareness about the Shia community’s conditions in Pakistan through conferences and its members organize protest marches in different cities; its members regularly protest outside Pakistani high commission in Delhi after each incident.

Community members signing the petition against Pakistan to the UN

After the Quetta massacre, AISHF has written a letter signed by 10,000 Indians to the United Nations Secretary General highlighting the plight of Pakistan’s Shias and asking the world body to save them.

30,000 killed in Pakistan

Syed Hasan Mahendi claims that more than 30,000 Shias have been killed in Pakistan in three decades. On the other hand, he says, the India Shia community lives peacefully in a Hindu-majority country. Today, as the Indian Shias are protesting against Pakistan, they also enjoy support of Sunnis. However, in Pakistan there is a contrasting atmosphere. Terrorist organizations and fundamentalists have joined hands to persecute the minority groups.

Terrorists owing allegiance to Islamic State had admitted to their involvement in the killing of 11 Hazara Shias in Quetta. Jaish-e-Muhammad, a terror outfit once active in Kashmir, was also behind ISIS in this.

Mahendi says apart from Pakistan, the Shia community is also being targeted in Syria, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Malaysia. To raise awareness on their plight, the AISHF published a weekly Navroz in ​​Hindu, Urdu and English languages.

 Mahendi says earlier the English and Urdu publications were also circulated in Pakistan. The negatives of the publication would be sent to their Shia brethren in Pakistan for printing of more copies for local circulation. However, this stopped as in 1992, the government of Pakistan unearthed this network. Eleven Pakistanis Shias associated with the newspaper had to flee to the Middle-east to escape persecution at the hands of the State.

Mahendi has written two books on Pakistan: 'Jihad banam atankwad  (Jihad vs Terrorism) and  'Pakistan kee sarzameen shiaon ke knoon se lal (Pakistan’s soil is soaked in shia blood). The books give detailed accounts of the killing of Shias in Pakistan. Mahendi said that after the ban on printing and circulation of Navroz in Pakistan, the publication launched its portal through which Pakistan’s Shia are in touch with the Indians.

He and other members of AISHF are waiting in the capital to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. He would press upon the Indian leaders to raise the issue of atrocities on minorities in Pakistan at the diplomatic level.