A Pakistani activist has taken to Twitter to expose the pervasive religious discrimination meted out against the non-Muslims in an upmarket neighbourhood of the Pakistani city of Karachi.
Bigotry spotted
If you are a non-Muslim, you cannot purchase or get a flat on rent in one of the posh areas of #Karachi. This is Machiyara Residency at Khaliq-uz-Zaman Rd, Block 8 Clifton, Karachi.
Photo courtesy: Dodal Chandio pic.twitter.com/ZkC3FnRBV4
— Kapil Dev (@KDSindhi) September 25, 2019
According to the Pakistani activist Kapil Dev, many ritzy residencies in posh areas of Karachi have put up notices barring non-Muslims from purchasing a flat or renting an apartment in the society. Dev has uploaded pictures of the notice affixed on the wall of Machiyara Residency at Khaliq-uz-Zaman Rd, Block 8 Clifton, Karachi, written in Urdu that non-Muslims are prohibited from buying or renting a flat in the society.
Religious discrimination and bigotry have been a central character of Pakistani society. Recently, a Hindu girl was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam by unknown Muslim assailants in the Sindh province of Pakistan. A few days ago, another Hindu girl, Nimrita Chandni, a final-year student of Bibi Asifa Dental College in Sindh province’s Larkana district and a social activist, was found lying on a cot by her friends on September 16 with a rope tied to her neck.
In another religion-based crime, a Hindu girl in Pakistan was abducted and converted to Islam. Earlier, Jagjit Kaur, a Sikh girl was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam in Nankana Sahib which had caused a huge uproar. It attracted widespread criticism and a massive protest by Sikhs in India in front of the Pakistani Embassy in New Delhi. Atrocities against non-Muslims is general leitmotif of Pakistani culture, they are not only relegated to being second-class citizens but they are also considered as object of possession, especially girls.
However, despite the rising incidents of religious bigotry in Pakistan, PM Imran Khan, instead of setting his own house in order, indulges in peddling the anti-minority rhetoric against India, in his bid to internationalise the Kashmir issue. Khan has been whipping up the hysteria that PM Modi and BJP is suppressing the rights of minorities in India without providing any evidence for the same. Contrary to Khan’s assertions, minorities in India have flourished whereas they withered away in Pakistan.
