Taliban delivers death threats to non-Muslims

After imposing jizya (an Islamic tax like a fine to the non-Muslims) to the Sikhs in some tribal areas of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan, where the Taliban have strongholds and rule their own fiefdom, Christians and Shia Muslims (a minority sect) across the country have received letters threatening them with death should they not conform to the Taliban's Sunni Islam.

On June 10, a letter was sent to Rabita Manzil, of the National Catholic Office for Social Communications in Lahore, second biggest city of Pakistan. It was handed over to a Christian women, who lives near the office by two masked men. The letter stated, “We know you are Christian. We warn you to leave this area, embrace Islam, pay 1,500,000 rupees (US$18,500) as jizya, or be ready to die in a suicide attack.”

According to the UCA News, Christians have received similar threats in various parts of the country as fighting between government troops and the Taliban militants continues to rage in the country's northwest. Sacred Heart Cathedral, several Catholic schools in Lahore, and various pastors have received threatening notes telling them to convert to Islam. Moreover, Church of Pakistan Bishop Mano Rumalshah of Peshawar, NWFP, said the churches in his diocese continued to receive threatening letters which say either become a Muslim, leave, or be killed.

A Pentecostal Bible School in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, near the Afghanistan border, was closed in May for indefinite period after receiving a threatening letter from  the Taliban that said that the school would be bombed. In the Swat region of the NWFP, the Taliban bombed around 200 schools, including some Christian schools.

Just during the first half of the month of June, Taliban bombed 15 schools in NWFP. On June 12, a bomber blew himself up at an Islamic seminary, Jamia Naeemia, in Lahore, in which 16 people, including Dr. Sarfraz Naeemi, a renowned Muslim religious scholar and head of the Islamic seminary, were killed and more than 100 people were injured, including very young boys. Dr. Naeemi had issued a fatwa (religious decree) against suicide attacks and he was against the Taliban’s actions and philosophy.

On May 27, Taliban sent a letter to an Imambargah (Shias’ religious place) at Jafferia Colony in Lahore. The letter was reproduced by an English-language daily. It threatens an attack on the place of worship unless Shias stop ‘anti-Islamic’ activities. It insists the Shias are in fact ‘non-Muslims’. It ordered them to leave Pakistan, convert or face violent consequences. The hardliner Muslims are against the Shia sect and have been killing them indiscriminately in various part of the country, especially in Dera Imael Khan and the Kurram Agency, the lone tribal areas where Shias formed a sizeable chunk of the population. Shias are around 20 per cent of the country.

Ismaili Muslims (another Shia Muslim sect) are also facing threats by the Taliban. According to a report published in the Pakistani media on June 16, the Taliban threatened the Ismaili community that if they will not shut down their offices in Gilgat, Chatral and Islamabd they would be bombed.



Aftab Mughal edits the Minorities Concern Report in Pakistan.