FoRB in Full

Criminalised, killed and cursed: The plight of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya community

Posted on 19/04/202122/06/2021 by cswpress in Asia, Pakistan

On 11 February, Abdul Qadir, a 65-year-old Ahmadi homeopathic doctor, was shot dead outside his homeopathic clinic in the Bazikhel area of Peshawar in north-western Pakistan. His killing marked the latest in a concerning uptick in religiously motivated attacks on Ahmadis, particularly in Peshawar.

Last year, CSW documented at least five other instances in which Ahmadis were killed, including an incident in which 31-year-old doctor, Tahir Mahmood, was murdered in front of his family at his home in Murch Balochan in Nankana Sahib District, Punjab.

The fact that Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya community has a long history of experiencing harassment, discrimination, violence and other human rights violations within Pakistani society leaves little doubt that these murders are religiously motivated. A pattern is also clearly emerging whereby prominent doctors and academics have been specifically singled-out by extremists.

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The Syrian Uprising: A decade on

Posted on 13/04/202122/06/2021 by cswpress in Middle East & North Africa, Syria

On 18 March 2011, Syrians across the country drew inspiration from the Arab spring and took to the streets demanding peace, human rights and democratic reform. Not only did these calls go unheeded; the government, which had ruled through terror since 1970, also responded with extreme force. Today, a little over ten years since the uprising began, Syria remains one of the most precarious states in the world, and in urgent need of further international action.

No mercy

President Bashar al-Assad and his ruling regime showed no mercy in the response to the demonstrations, using enforced disappearance, torture, extrajudicial execution, and extreme military force, including aerial bombardment, heavy artillery and chemical weapons. The government was quick to portray the uprising as a fundamentalist Sunni movement that threatened minorities, and what began as a peaceful uprising swiftly degenerated into a full-blown military conflict with a prominent sectarian aspect.

President Assad had long presented himself as a secular leader who protected minorities and promoted modernity and inclusion, casting any opposition as backward and sectarian, but it is worth noting that the Assad regime regularly fostered and used extremist groups to destabilise neighbouring countries such as Iraq and Lebanon. The regime also released hundreds of extremist prisoners at the beginning of the uprising in order to undermine it, many of whom joined Al Qaeda, Islamic State (IS) and other extremist militia.

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Corea del Norte y la Región Autónoma Uigur de Sinkiang: paralelos sombríos entre dos de los lugares con más represión del mundo

Posted on 08/04/202125/06/2021 by cswpress in Asia ES, China ES, español, North Korea ES

El 3 de marzo la plataforma de información enfocada en China, SupChina, publicó extractos traducidos de una discusión de 16 horas de una ‘sala’ en la aplicación Clubhouse llamada, “¿Hay un campo de concentración en Sinkiang?” Increíblemente la sala atrajo 4,000 participantes, pero la situación verdaderamente extraordinaria de la conversación era la reunión de los uigures y los chinos han por un momento – tanto dentro como fuera de China – en un espacio momentáneamente más allá de las restricciones gubernamentales.

La Información fiable sobre lo que está pasando en contra de los uigures es fuertemente censurada en China; las únicas noticias sobre la Región Autónoma Uigur de Sinkiang uigurson de los medios estatales que pintan a los uigures como terroristas potenciales o intrumentos agradecidos del programa de “reeducación” del gobierno.

Antes de su prohibición, Clubhouse proporcionó brevemente un canal nuevo para la discusión abierta de uno de los asuntos más sensibles en China hoy. SupChina describrió la conversación como “histórica”, y ciertamente fue: histórica, emotiva, trágica y esclarecedora.

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“Souls were scarred that day”: Remembering the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park Easter Sunday bombings

Posted on 06/04/202113/04/2021 by cswpress in Asia, Pakistan

Last weekend, as Christians around the world celebrated Easter Sunday, many in Pakistan were no doubt remembering a day of similar celebration five years ago – one that sadly turned into a day of horror and mourning.

On that day in 2016, suicide bombers carried out an attack targeting Christians who had gathered to celebrate in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in Lahore. Over 72 people were killed, and around 300 more were injured.

On the fifth anniversary of the attacks, CSW spoke to several of those whose lives were changed forever on that day, and who continue to await justice.

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A long road to recovery: Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Bombings two years on

Posted on 01/04/202122/06/2021 by cswpress in Asia, Sri Lanka

On Easter Sunday 2019, suicide bombers launched a series of coordinated attacks on churches and hotels across Sri Lanka. Over 250 people were killed, and some 500 more were injured.

The attacks destabilised already tense ethno-religious relations in the country, with intolerance and violence towards Muslims particularly increasing in their wake.

Today, CSW remembers all those who lost their lives to these senseless killings. We stand with those who continue to mourn the loss of their friends, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and loved ones. We also remember those for whom the road to recovery in the two years since has been long and arduous, some of whose stories are shared below. Their names have been changed for security reasons.

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