Minority report

Demonstrations at Janam Asthan Gurdwara, Nankana Sahib, by a crowd that was both voluble and violent, are unfortunate and condemnable. The birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev has a special significance for the Sikhs, and Nankana Sahib is also home to a small Pakistani Sikh community. As the immediate protests from Sikh organisations, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, and the Government of India show, the incident of stone-pelting and threatening pilgrims in the gurdwara has been taken very seriously.

Even as Pakistani authorities and the Foreign Office have attempted to underplay the violent protest, pictures posted in the media show a different and ugly reality. The cause of the protest was apparently the arrest of persons accused by the family of a Sikh girl of forcibly converting her in order to marry her. When the issue was raised last year, it had resulted in widespread condemnation internationally. Under pressure, the government in Pakistan had intervened at the federal and state levels to ‘sort out the matter’. Obviously, not enough was done. Cases of forcible conversion of girls of marriageable age from Sikh, Hindu and tribal communities in Pakistan have appeared in the media from time to time.

Notwithstanding protestations from Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Pakistan Foreign Office, the Nankana Sahib incident, and the underlying cause, both highlight the perilous state of minorities in a country that has constitutionally, through the Objectives Resolution, reduced non-Islamic religious minorities to a second-class status. The attack on the birthplace of Guru Nanak and the murder of a Sikh within 48 hours show how deep the rot of religious intolerance and bigotry runs in the country. It cuts through all the papering-over that has recently been done by opening the Kartarpur corridor. The killing of Ravinder Singh, who was out for shopping, has exposed the Pakistan government’s hollow claims. The Imran Khan government must ensure that the fundamental rights of all minorities in Pakistan are safeguarded. It must protect minorities and ensure the safety of their shrines.