Attacks on Sikhs

Like tumbling dominoes in a perpetual sequence of cascading failure, non-Muslims in the country have been targeted one after another regardless of geography. The squeezed space for existence for the already displaced Sikhs from the tribal areas is further shrinking. As adherents of different faiths are continuously targeted throughout the country, it’s the Sikhs in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa that are now on the list.

While Sikhs in the tribal areas were forced to vacate their villages in the tribal areas because of the conflict that surrounded them there, their new abode has not been as pleasant either. At least two Sikhs have been killed in incidents of targeted attack in the last one month alone, while another was found murdered under mysterious circumstances in his shop in Mardan district. A chronology of attacks reveals incidents of violence against the community from Charsadda to Dera Ismail Khan in the last year, which in other words means the entire province, where the community exists.

The question is why are the Sikhs attacked? Historically, Peshawar has been a hub of cultural and religious diversity, the Sikhs have always been part of history of the city well before 1947. What new kind of extremism is now a part of the social fabric and why? While security officials have failed to protect the lives of the marginalised community, the murder of Harjeet Singh, the most recent of the victims, hints at the failure of the apparatus implied for the protection of the citizen on one hand but at the same time an ugly premonition of more attacks against the community cannot be denied.

There have been no responsibility claims for the attacks against the Sikhs. The silence is even more troubling. While we have set dangerous precedents with the kind of protests in this country, there needs to be an outcome this time, for some visible justice, particularly for minorities before they set off to protest once again.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2014.

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