Joseph Colony: ‘Minorities not be left at the mercy of religious bigots’

Governor Mahmud writes to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

LAHORE:

The governor has written to the chief minister, noting with concern the ineffectiveness of the police during the Badami Bagh incidents last week. However, he has also appreciated the follow up action taken by the government, calling them “steps in the right direction”.

In the letter, Governor Makhdoom Syed Ahmad Mahmud has called the burning of two churches and a number of residences and vehicles in Joseph Colony on March 9 a “shameful incident”.

“The incident has not only terrorised the minority community but also tarnished the image of the country internationally. It has intensified the sense of insecurity among minorities and the general public alike,” he writes.

In the seven-paragraph letter, Mahmud has pointed out that the maintenance of law and order is the “exclusive domain” of the provincial government.

He regrets that “despite ample warning beforehand, the police and administration were unable to take effective preventive measures to defuse the explosive situation”. “[T]he police sprang into action when the situation had already spun out of control and the mob had gone berserk,” he says. He also expresses regret that no lessons were learnt from similar incidents of persecution of minorities in Shantinagar and Gojra.



Shantinagar is a small village near Khanewal where churches and residences of Christians were attacked in February 1997 after allegations of blasphemy. In 2009, Christians in Gojra, Toba Tek Singh, were attacked, after three of them were accused of desecrating the Quran. At least eight Christians were killed in the riots.

The governor then praises the government for initiating disciplinary action against the local police and for planning to call for a judicial inquiry into the incident. He hopes that “the law enforcing agencies shall also learn from their mistakes.”

“The minorities do not deserve to be left at the mercy of religious bigots who hardly let go of any opportunity to perpetrate such incidents which dilute the writ of the Government and breed mutual hatred,” Mahmud writes.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2013.