South Asia Citizens Web

THE Indian prime minister has said that the only way to approach relations with Pakistan was to trust it, but with requisite verification. If there is a genuine inclination to mend ties, doubt rather than trust could be a more positive approach.

One year ago, on July 2nd 2009, the Delhi High Court gave a historic
judgement decriminalising adult consensual same-sex sexual activity in
private. The ruling overturned a 19th century British law, Section 377 of
the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised same-sex activity as being
“against the order of nature”! Under this law millions of people in India
suffered life-long harassment in schools, colleges, workspace, homes, the
streets etc. along with discrimination and blackmail simply for loving
someone of the same sex. This law, coupled with the homophobic mahaul in
society, led to forced marriages, suicides and continual violence faced by
lesbians, bisexuals, gay and transgender people.

The debate over whether Pakistan’s religious seminaries or ‘madrasas’ fuel militancy has overshadowed a larger question of whether Pakistan’s education system, including its public and private schools, is helping to mitigate the threat of violence, or is it just throwing more oil onto the fire?

Why are Ahmadis persecuted so ferociously in Pakistan?

The reason can’t be that their large numbers pose some sort of ‘threat from within’. After all, Ahmadis are a relatively small minority in Pakistan. They make up somewhere between 0.25 per cent (according to the last census) and 2.5 per cent (according to the Economist) of our population.

Nor can the reason be that Ahmadis are non-Muslims. Pakistani Christians and Pakistani Hindus are non-Muslims, and similar in numbers to Pakistani Ahmadis. Yet Christians and Hindus, while undeniably discriminated against, face nothing like the vitriol directed towards Ahmadis in our country.

Anhad expresses its deep shock and anguish over the sad and unfortunate killings of nine young boys in the last two weeks in Jammu and Kashmir, where the Valley has seen a sharp escalation of police and para military atrocities, leading to many deaths and injuries. Scores of youngsters and innocent people have been killed. Even a brazen case of yet another fake encounter at the hands of a rogue army official has come to light. These acts of brutality, in complete violation of the law of the land and constitutional rights of the people, have resulted in mass outrage and alienation of large sections of the civilian population in Kashmir.