I am sure most of you must be as shocked as I am at the brutal assassination of the Catholic Christian Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Mr Shahbaz Bhatti. I am still in great shock and trauma. The killing of Shahbaz Bhatti has shown that among what kind of inhuman society of Pakistan we are living in. We are surrounded by the extremists and terrorists. Those who justify killing others in the name of religion. It is an ugly example of religiously motivated violence done by our fellow citizens. This assassination is carried not by any other than our Pakistani Taliban. These Taliban who claim to be very devoted Muslims, feel very happy and proud that they have killed a Christian Federal Minister who was speaking for human dignity, justice, peace and interfaith dialogue. Shahbas was voice of the voiceless and oppressed classes over here. He was speaking against the discriminatory laws of our country which have made minorities easy target of the extremists and terrorists.
He was outspoken against the misuse us blasphemy laws in Pakistan. He wanted that there should be some measures to safeguard so many innocent people who are falsely accused of blasphemy against the Prophet of Islam. He wanted that if some one is accused of blasphemy a high level investigation should be done before registering a case against that person. He saida that so far these laws have been used to settle personal scores.
I have just received a phone call from Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, our URI Global Trustee. He has condemned the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti in the strongest words. Maulana says he have lost a great promoter of interfaith dialogue. His death is a great loss to our nation and particularly to Christians. Maulana was a close friend of Bhatti. Maulana, Shahbaz Bhatti and my self had many interfaith and humans rights meetings together.
The killing of Shahbaz a great blow to the human rights activists. He death is a great loss to the Pakistan Christians. We have lost a great leader. He was very bold in advocating for our rights. He wanted to see Pakistan as the nation whose dream was seen by Muhammad Ali Jinnah - the founder of our country. May his soul rest in peace!
The Catholic Bishops of Pakistan have announced 3 days of mourning at the killing of Shabaz. All schools and other Christian institutions will remain closed in protest for 3 days.
I hope other people will also condemn this killing and let their voices be heard that they will not bow to the extremists and fanatics.
I am pasting below the last interview of Shahbaz which was taken by the French TV. You can see his face, his bold stand and even his readiness to be killed by the terrorist for his advocacy for human dignity and equality. He and his family members had received many treaths to be killed.
James Channan
Click here for a press release from church leaders in Pakistan.
Click here to read URI's statement of condolences.
