In Lahore, hundreds of Christians blocked Ferozepur Road in protest for about three hours on June 12, after they said a policeman beat up a pastor.
A law and order situation was reported that morning in the city’s Fazlia Colony neighborhood – where about 400 households are Christian – after a Muslim man living next to the Pentecostal United Church called the emergency police and complained that the church was causing inconvenience by its use of speakers during the holy month of Ramzan, and violating the Punjab Sound Systems (Regulation) Act of 2015.
“Four policemen arrived at the church at about 10:30am and asked for me while the church service was going on,” Pastor Riaz Rehmat told me. “I spoke to them, and constable Muhammad Nawaz, who is on duty at the church every Sunday, told them we did not use a loudspeaker.”
He ran towards the church in a fit of anger, wielding his gun
While they were discussing why someone may have raised an alarm, one of the four constables ran towards the church in a fit of anger, wielding his gun. “He shouted at the worshippers and told them to discontinue the service and stop ‘making noise’,” according to the pastor. “I went after him and told him to go out of the church. He began to beat me.”
The news spread fast. Congregants from other churches started pouring in and held a protest demonstration on Ferozepur Road.
“It was Constable Ameer Abdullah’s personal act and does not reflect police policy. He has been suspended from duty,” said Ichhra stationhouse officer Bilal Hanif. “A departmental inquiry has been launched and senior police officers are investigating the matter.”
The man who had made the call, one Shabbir Shah, had made a similar call last week, the police officer said. “We are investigating that matter as well.”
Shabbir Shah is a Sunni Muslim and has hardliner views, according to the Pastor. “About three years ago, he arrived at the entrance of the church gate on a Sunday, before the service had started. He yelled that the music must stop. I told the police and the local political leaders, after which the matter was settled. No criminal case was lodged.”
Two weeks ago, the police briefly apprehended two Christians youths from the Church of Christ, another church in the vicinity, according to Dilraj John, who lives close to the Pentecostal United Church. “They were detained after someone called the emergency police helpline, but let go in an hour.”
In a separate incident in the Mirpur Mathelo town of Sindh’s Ghotki district, a policeman on guard duty at the district headquarters hospital beat up an 80-year-old Hindu man for eating rice a little while before the breaking of the Ramzan fast.
"They told me not to sell ice cream because I am an unclean Christian"
On Friday, June 10, at about 6:30pm, a man was giving out free rice as alms at a fuel station. Gokhal Das was among the recipients, his son Gobind Ram told me.
The policeman, identified as Ali Hassan Hyderani, had come to buy ice when he saw Gokhal Das. “The cop asked him why he was eating before Iftar. My father, who is hearing-impaired, could not understand him properly and pointed at the other people.” The policeman began to beat up him with his baton, injuring his head, nose and hand. He was taken to a hospital.
Gobind Ram refuted media report that his father was selling edibles. “He cannot hear properly and is visually impaired in one eye. He cannot work.”
A first information report was registered against the cop under sections 504, 506/2, and 336 of Pakistan Penal Code at the Jarwar Police Station and he was arrested. “Apart from criminal proceedings, a departmental inquiry has also been launched against him,” Senior Superintendent of Police Masood Ahmed Bangash told me.
Human rights activist Ashok Kumar Bekas praised the policeman’s arrest. “In Sindh’s villages, scheduled-caste Hindus are treated like animals,” he said. “They are forced to work day and night, without rest, and in return they get next to nothing. Landlords treat them as chattel.”
In yet another incident, a Christian claimed that he had been beaten up by a mob for selling ice-cream to Muslim customers, who believe it had become unclean because a Christian had touched it during the sale.
On May 16, Khalil Masih, a 42-year-old father of six, was selling ice-cream on his motorcycle in the Badoke village in Changa Manga, in the Kasur district. “The wife of local resident Muhammad Boota stopped me and told me I could not sell ice-cream as I was ritually impure and was defiling Muslims by selling my ice cream to them,” Khalil said. “She warned me not to come back to the village, threatening me with serious consequences.”
Most Pakistani Christians trace their origins to an untouchable caste that was thought to bring ritual impurity to others. That is why many Muslims do not like to eat and drink with them, or use the same utensils – a practice forbidden in the traditional caste-based system of Hinduism.
Khalil went back to the village to earn his livelihood the next day. “Muhammad Boota’s two sons – Muhammad Rizwan and Muhammad Farman – began to beat me up. They took me to the square, where other people joined in and began beating me too, telling me not to sell eatables because I am an unclean Christian.”
He filed a complaint with the police, but said they did not help him. He said a similar incident took place three years ago, but no action was taken.
Changa Manga Police Station House Officer Muhammad Hussain said that the issue had been resolved after a compromise on May 20. He denied religion had anything to do with the matter.
“The woman says she had asked for five-rupee ice creams, but Khalil said the cheapest ones cost ten,” the officer said. “Khalil told her she would have to spend some money if she wanted ice cream, and that angered the woman.”