SAC Bulletin #8 (2023/1)

The Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan pushed Afghans, especially those from minority groups, to a precarious situation. This continued during the period under review. Alongside other extremist groups like the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the Taliban are accused of subjecting minorities to brutal attacks, casting doubts over the protection of minority groups from violence and terror. Despite Taliban officials’ initial statements that they have reformed elements of their 1990s ideology and their pledges of moderation, the future for minority groups appears bleak. After one year of their takeover of Afghanistan, minority groups are struggling to survive. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan 2022 mid-year report recorded 2106 civilian casualties, which means, considering the concept of minority in the context of Afghanistan under the Taliban, a huge percentage of casualties are from minority groups. Their physical existence is in danger because of their identity as they are not recognised as equal citizens. Besides, they are not represented in the cabinet and in public administration.

Less than a month following the fall of Kabul, the Taliban announced their interim government, declaring the country an ‘Islamic Emirate’ aiming to enforce Sharia law. In September 2021, they introduced their cabinet with no representation from ethno-religious minority groups or women. The judicial system was replaced with field courts in provinces and the verdicts of former courts was invalidated. Forced displacement in several provinces such as Daikundi, Panjshir, Takhar and Badakhshan began to increase. Forced redress of already resolved disputes are implemented either by the Taliban or by their affiliates in the north and central areas of the country.

The humanitarian crisis in the country has exacerbated the sufferings of the minority groups, especially civilians displaced due to internal strife. Several reports including the report of the Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Human Rights Situation have highlighted the misuse in the distribution of humanitarian aid. In an interview with CSHRN, it has been confirmed that a Taliban commander while distributing humanitarian aid among their fighters and supporters said: “for twenty years humanitarian aid was used by others and now it is our [Taliban] term”.

Despite having lived in the country for centuries, some minority groups like Afghan Kyrgyz, Sikhs and Hindus are trying to leave the country. Of the estimated 100,000 Sikhs and Hindus in 1970, only 140 remain and their lives are under threat. A deadly explosion in a Sikh prayer site in Kabul in June 2022 left one worshiper dead and several injured. The marginalisation of the Hazara religious minority of Shia Muslims is also steadily mounting. Ashura, a commemoration day for Shia Muslims, was a national holiday under the former government but not anymore under the Taliban. Additionally, several deadly attacks on this minority group have put them at risk of genocide since the Taliban takeover.

Religious and ethnic minority groups’ displacement, and lack of access to social services such as health care, shelter, education, welfare, and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan is another major concern. Thousands of Uzbeks and Turkmens in Faryab province displaced during the conflict between the Taliban and the former government in northern areas of the country are still suffering. Their shelters were destroyed, and they do not have even enough food to eat. Hazaras who lost their everything in recent floods in Ghazni instead of receiving immediate assistance for living are forced to pay ushur and zakat.

The Taliban takeover also resulted in the dominance of one minority group over others. Since August 2021, Kochi nomads, who enjoy support from the Taliban, have violated the rights of other minority groups. In Hazara-dominated areas of Ghazni province, they have turned school buildings into cattle sheds while students do not have classrooms. In Takhar, Kochi nomads live in homes of local Tajik ethnic group under order of the Taliban. In August, armed Kochi nomads attacked Hazaras in Daikundi province to grab their lands.

The larger minority groups, Tajiks and Hazaras, who have resisted the Taliban, have been discriminated against by the Taliban. Several cases show that civilians belonging to these two minority groups have been subjected to incommunicado detentions, torture, extrajudicial killings and forced displacement. In August, the Taliban set on fire Tajik homes in Panjshir province. They arbitrarily arrested 25 civilians and have forcibly displaced people in Abdullah Khil district of this province.

Towards the end of 2022 on 20th of December a statement was published that banned women employees from working with NGOs. After the collapse of Republican this was the final step to wipe out the women from society. Afghanistan as aid depending country the biggest human resource sector NGOs deprived women from going to work. Single mothers and women with no women are main victim of this barbaric decision. Through a UN Women Report only 6% percent of the organizations have said that would continue their work, while 94% have mentioned partially or completely stop their work. The same report have described over 70% of women as breadwinners of their families and 90% of the women would not be able to find a job. This has further exacerbated the human rights crisis.

Afghans belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community who do not conform to rigid gender norms in Afghanistan are also deprived of their rights. The Taliban Sharia law does not recognise LGBTIA+ rights. The group has increasingly reported grave threats to their lives and safety. They fled their homes from attacks and threats from the Taliban after the fall of Kabul.

In conclusion, the definition of minority and majority has changed in Afghanistan context. The Taliban a complete male dominant group is the majority, women, girls, other ethnic, linguistic, religious minorities face extreme pressure. In instances such as Hindu Sikh face the risk of complete elimination. The fundamental rights of citizens are violated systematically by the de facto authorities. Human rights defenders, journalists, professors, bloggers, and other groups who oppose the idea of de facto authorities face detention, torture, and enforced disappearances.

The rights of Bangladesh’s minority groups continued to be violated during the period under review.

As has been the case in the , in July 2022, shops and several houses owned by Hindus were vandalised in Narail district in southwestern Bangladesh after a Facebook post allegedly defamed Islam. A temple with furniture inside it was also vandalised. As in the past, social media posts from fake profiles representing Hindu identities are often used to trigger violence against Hindus. The violence led a hundred Hindu families, especially women, to escape the area, feeling particularly vulnerable with their ‘honour at stake’. The incident took place while memories of wide-scale violence against Hindus following a similar allegation that led to the death of 11 people, including seven Muslims and four Hindus, in October 2021 were still fresh.

Hindu leaders and activists allege that violence against Hindus in Bangladesh is a ploy by radical Islamists to grab their property including land. In the violence in July 2022, the mob also took money and valuables from the houses of Hindus. Despite the viewpoint, as expressed in some quarters, that the latest violence directed at Hindus is a retaliation against the Hindu cultural assertiveness in neighbouring India as evidenced by the violent clashes during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in March 2021, resulting in the deaths of 12 people, targeting of Hindus has a long history in Bangladesh.

But it is not only Hindus who fear that their land is under threat. Indigenous groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts from the southwest of the country and the plain lands are ‘facing violence, evictions and deaths centring on their land’, according to activists and academics. People from minority communities have also been killed, a minority leader said during an interaction in October on the issue.

In addition to regular attacks on Hindu, Christian and Buddhist communities, the risk is now spreading to Muslim inter-sect communities such as the Ahmadiyya. In March 2023, Ahmadiyyas in Panchagarh district faced mob violence by Islamists demanding the closure of the Ahmadiyya Jamaat’s three-day congregation, named ‘Salana Jalsa’. At least two persons died and 100 others were left injured in the attack.

Since August 2017, Bangladesh has been hosting more than a million of Rohingya refugees following their large-scale persecution in neighbouring Myanmar. They were another minority group that continued to face discrimination in Bangladesh during the period under review. The government started fencing around the refugee camps in 2019 under a plea for security; again in 2022, more than 3000 shops run by the refugees were demolished in refugee camps. The bulldozing of shops has threatened the livelihoods of families who were dependent on the shops, further exacerbating the already precarious situation of the refugees. While authorities claimed that the shops were ‘illegal’, refugee leaders claimed since the ration provided to them is not enough, families were relying on the income from the shops. In March 2023, thousands of Rohingya were left without shelter after a massive fire broke out in a crowded refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar.

Homosexuality remains illegal in Bangladesh and is punishable with up to life imprisonment, as per the Penal Code 1870; the provision is not widely enforced rather used as a tool of harassment against the community. Meanwhile, as in India and Pakistan, hijras (generally transgender women) are traditionally accepted in the country but discrimination against them continues despite them being recognised as a ‘third gender’ in 2013. A 2022 study conducted among 346 hijras, living in five urban cities of Bangladesh, found that members of the community face widespread human rights violations in the spheres of economic, employment, health, education, social, civil, and political rights.

During the period under review, the targeted violence that India’s religious minorities – particularly Muslims and Christians – have been facing since the assumption of power in 2014 by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued, amid a dangerous escalation in incitement to violence by powerful religious and political figures. State authorities at the federal level and in BJP-ruled provinces across the country also continued to pursue anti-minority and anti-democratic laws, policies and actions, leading the V-Dem Institute to note in its 2023 report that India is ‘one of the worst autocratisers in the last 10 years.’

Despite its relative lack of major communal strife compared to other South Asian countries, incidents of discrimination against Dalits continued in Nepal during the period under review. Despite discrimination on the basis of caste being illegal and provisions of inclusion are mandated by law, this is not implemented. The situation led to the Supreme Court, ruling on writ petition demanding provisions for equality, non-discrimination, equity, inclusion, right to participation and social justice for members of the Dalit community, ordering the government in February to make short-, medium- and long-term plans within three months to ensure their rights and implement them as per provisions of the constitution. However, the government is yet to announce such plans.

Dalits not only face discrimination and inequality, they continue to face human rights abuses as well. In June, a woman was barred from entering a temple in Kathmandu district although Dalits claimed that they had contributed in the building of the temple. A report released in September found that between mid-April 2021 and mid-April 2022 (2078 BS according to the Nepali calendar) Dalits faced 88 instances of human rights violations including five deaths because of their caste status. A total of 25 Dalit women and girls were raped during this period. Other forms of violations and discrimination included attempted rape, non-renting of rooms and barring of entry into temples. Of these, only 10 cases were settled through court while 16 were mutually settled outside the legal regime. The number of cases of human rights violations against Dalits are on the rise and this is evidenced by government reports. Nepal Police registered 39 cases of caste-based discrimination between mid-July 2020 and mid-July 2021, compared to 29 in corresponding period in the previous year. Between mid-April and mid-June 2022, there were 10 incidents of caste-based discrimination against Dalits in Nepal. These included death in prison, accusation of witchcraft, physical assault and murder among others.

The extent of discrimination and maltreatment Dalits in Nepal have faced and the deep-seated prejudice against the community was highlighted in August when it was revealed that authorities had issued Dalits citizenship certificates with first names like Kukur (dog in Nepali), Kukurni (bitch), Fyauro (fox), Singane (snotty), Chor (thief) and Thug (cheat). After an uproar, the Ministry of Home Affairs directed local administrations across the country to change the names. Cases of such derogatory names were prevalent in Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces in western Nepal.

In another appalling case, a 13-year-old Dalit girl from Ramechhap was tied to a pole and subjected to physical abuse on accusation of theft. The perpetrator ignored calls from the neighbours and the family of the victim to let the girl free, with the police only being summoned after 20 hours of abuse. The perpetrator, who had been absconding after being served with a jail sentence in September, was caught in February 2023.

Verbal abuse and discriminatory behaviour directed towards Dalits is also meted out by those in public positions. In January, a ward chairman from Pokhara was arrested for directing discriminatory slander towards a ward committee member belonging to the Dalit community in a meeting. Another official, the chairman of Bhagwanpur Rural Municipality in Siraha, was accused in March 2023 of having a caste-based seating arrangement in a personal event.

Discrimination against sexual minorities belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community continued in Nepal during the period under review. Discrimination by the state was evident in the announcement in January of the preliminary findings of the decennial census held in 2021 as it did not record in a single Nepali in the ‘other’ category besides male and female, in a population that totalled 29 million, despite there being such a category in the census. Activists, however, hope that when the final results of the census that was held in October-November 2021 is announced, there will be better news for them. The census had also been criticised for the lack of inclusivity in the census as LGBTQIA+ activists saying that ‘other’ does not reflect the diversity within the category.

That harassment of sexual minorities at the societal level remains despite hijras being traditionally recognised in the Tarai plains of southern Nepal was evident when two of them, aged 43 and 47, were indiscriminately beaten up on suspicions of stealing a baby in Bishnupur Rural Municipality of Siraha district. They were rescued when police arrived at the scene. The duo with other hijaras visit families to bless a newborn, a traditional practice.

Intersectionality exacerbates the marginalisation and vulnerability of minority groups. This was evident in a rape case of a teenage girl with a physical disability in Morang district. The victim, who cannot walk because of her disability, was assaulted by a 56-year-old man in a shed at night. The victim was reportedly carried to the shed by the perpetrator.

A rise in custodial torture, particularly against the Madhesi Dalit minority, has been a cause of grave concern. A woman, detained as suspect for a murder case, reported police officers striking her in her private parts, thrashing her with a pipe, and giving her an electric shock in custody, so as to get a confession. The incident transpired in the Siraha district in October, and represents, one of many recent such cases, of custodial torture and brutality.

Nepal’s small Christian minority, which has reportedly seen a surge in numbers in recent decades, has complained about the systemic denial of burial spaces, forcing many to travel significant distances for burial. Religious freedom for Nepal’s Christians remains restricted by an anti-conversion law that came into force across the country in 2018.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s majoritarian assertion in neighbouring India has begun to have reverberations on the situation of religious minorities in Nepal too. In March 2023, Nepal witnessed communal violence around the Hindu Ram Navami festival ‘for the first time ever’ – similar to that reported from across India – in two cities.

During the period under review, Pakistan’s religious minorities continued to face threats, physical attacks, including targeted killing, mob violence, abduction and forced marriage and desecration of cemeteries. Christians and Ahmadiyyas were particular targets of attacks but Hindus were not spared either. The LGBTQIA+ community was also under threat despite the traditional tolerance of transgender people.

An elderly priest was shot dead and another priest who was travelling with him was wounded in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in January 2022. The 75-year-old priest was returning after Sunday mass. A Christian man died of wounds after he was shot by two people on motorcycles in a Christian colony in Mastung area of Baluchistan province in August. Three teenagers were also injured in the attack. In February 2022, the Christian owner of a snooker club in Lahore died after he was beaten by a mob of some 150 to 200 Muslim men following an altercation at the club the previous day. The victim’s uncle had filed a complaint to the police after some men had ransacked the club’s property following the argument and the mob had demanded the withdrawal of the complaint. In February 2023, a 19-year-old Christian woman in Karachi faced a violent acid attack, reportedly after she refused to enter into a relationship with a Muslim man and convert to Islam. Also in 2023, two Christian farm labourers were murdered in two separate attacks: in Punjab’s Khanewal district, where a Christian man was beaten to death after he was reportedly falsely accused of stealing oranges from a Muslim landowner’s property, and in Punjab’s Okara district, where a Christian man was gunned down reportedly after he objected to some Muslim men stealing fruit from his orchard.

The Ahmadiyya community is another religious minority that continues to face violent attacks in Pakistan. In May 2022, a 33-year-old Ahmadiyya man was stabbed and killed while he was returning from his fields by a seminary student in Okara of Punjab province. In August 2022, another Ahmadiyya man was stabbed to death in Chiniot district, Punjab province, after the assailant told him to disassociate himself from the community. Ahmadiyyas are also persecuted for observing Muslim rituals since their status, though earlier recognised as Muslim sect, was redefined in 1974 and in 1984; Ahmadiyya community members declaring themselves as Muslims became a criminal offence. In July 2022, three members of the community were arrested after a case was filed against them for sacrificing animals in their homes in Faisalabad, Punjab province on Eidul Azha, which is celebrated by Muslims by sacrificing animals.

Ahmadiyya graves were desecrated during the period under review in further sign of intolerance towards the community. In July 2022, 53 graves in an Ahmadiyya graveyard in Gujranwala, Punjab province, were desecrated with their headstones shattered and broken by policemen.  A similar such incident had also taken place in February 2022 when police defaced as many as 45 Ahmadiyya graves, removing plaques and destroying headstones in Hafizabad, Punjab province. In February 2023, activists of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) desecrated the minarets of an Ahmadiyya mosque in Karachi, in the presence of police personnel. TLP activists had similarly desecrated another Ahmadiyya mosque in Karachi in January 2023. A historically significant Ahmadiyya mosque dating back to 1905 was desecrated by district authorities in Wazirabad, also in January 2023, reportedly upon a complaint lodged by a local TLP leader.

In another sign of religious intolerance in the country, girls and women of minority religious communities are abducted, converted into Islam and married to Muslim men. In January 2022, a 14-year-old Christian girl was abducted, converted to Islam forcefully and married to a 45-year-old Muslim man in Lahore in Punjab province. Also in Lahore, in December 2022, a 15-year-old Christian girl was similarly abducted, converted, and forcibly married to a 60-year-old man. Minor Hindu girls too continue to face such forced conversions: recently reported instances include that of an 11-year-old girl in Sindh’s Sanghar district, a 14-year-old girl in Sindh’s Tando Allahyar district. A Lahore-based civil society organisation documented at least 46 such incidents in 2022, including 33 in Sindh, 12 in Punjab, and 1 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But the law does not see such incidents as a crime as long as the girl has started mensurating as she is considered to be of marriageable age. Besides, forced conversion is not a crime and Pakistan’s parliamentary committee in October 2021 rejected a bill to protect religious minorities against forced conversion. In March 2022, an 18-year-old Hindu girl was shot dead in Sindh province when she resisted an attempt to abduct her and force her into marriage. In January 2023, a married Hindu woman, also in Sindh, was abducted and reportedly gang-raped for three days after she refused to convert to Islam.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are also used to persecute religious minorities and others and this trend continued during the period under review. After protests, a Hindu sanitation worker was arrested in Karachi in August 2022 ‘without proper investigation’ on charges of burning pages of a religious book. In February 2022, a Hindu college teacher was sentenced to life imprisonment in Karachi, Sindh province, for blasphemy. In July 2022, a 34-year-old bicycle mechanic was sentenced to death for blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad following an altercation with a customer who was asking for a discount in Lahore of Punjab province in 2017. In October 2022, a handicapped man, accused of blasphemy, was set ablaze and when he jumped into pond to douse the fire, his attacker, a seminary student, followed, strangling him to death. In March 2022, a woman teacher of an all-girls’ school was killed with her throat slit by her colleague in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after two of the latter’s nieces, also students at the school, said that a relative had dreamt the victim had committed blasphemy. The abuse of blasphemy laws could worsen further, with the National Assembly unanimously voting in January 2023 to increase the punishment for using derogatory remarks against religious figures.

Pakistan also witnessed the fallout of derogatory remarks made against Prophet Muhammad in June 2022 by leaders of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Five or six armed men entered a Hindu temple and desecrated it.

Pakistan’s transgender people faced threats to their identity during the period under review as opposition to the 2018 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act which allows transgender Pakistanis to choose their gender as they see themselves grew. Those opposing the law, hailed globally when enacted, see it as a ‘threat to family’. As evidence of growing threats to transgender people, known as hijras and traditionally tolerated in the country, four trans-women were killed in September 2022 while 20 transgender people were killed in 2021.

During the period under review, discrimination of religious and ethnic minorities continued in Sri Lanka. In particular, families of those who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war that ended in 2009 continued to face surveillance, questioning, intimidation and unannounced visits by intelligence and police officers, and former cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam too continued to face intense surveillance, a United Nations report in October 2022 said. But with the change in regime in the country, following widespread protests from March to July 2022 as the country faced a worsening economic crisis, leading to the flight from the country of the-then President Gotabaya Rajapakse in July, there are signs that the repression of minorities may be eased. For example, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, elected by parliament after his predecessor fled the country, has said that it would not continue the previous administration’s ‘one country, one law’ policy, and he celebrated the country’s ethnic and religious diversity in a speech to parliament in August. In the wake of the latest UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka that was passed with 20 votes for and seven against, with 20 member states abstaining he has noted that reconciliation is a priority and has appointed a cabinet subcommittee, presided over by himself, to address the matter.

A bill to amend the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, in place since 1979 and which allowed arbitrary detention, was passed by the parliament in March, allowing detainees to challenge their detention in court, giving detainees right to counsel and making it mandatory for the magistrate to visit detainees. But, according to the United Nations, the amendments do not fully comply with the country’s human rights obligations under international law and some of the most ‘problematic’ provisions of the act have not been addressed in the amendment. Sri Lankas human rights activists reject the dangerously broad definition of terrorism under the Act, its prevention of the judiciary from reviewing detention orders and the expansion of executive powers under the Act as being among the many dangerous provisions incorporated under the Act.

During widespread protests across the country from March to July 2022, the country’s ethnic and religious minorities joined hands with the majority groups demanding the ouster of the president in face of the growing economic crisis. However, the Tamil minority in the north and the east could not protest fearing retaliation as they have to face the military while protestors in the rest of the country are dealt with by police. Activists said that protests in the north and the east against the government was much rarer since security forces would not show restraint there the way they had in the capital and elsewhere in the country. Treatment by authorities depended on who the protestors were and where they were.

Despite President Wickremesinghe’s conciliatory words towards minorities, they are wary of him. Following the Easter bombings in 2019, in which 250 people were killed, Wickremesinghe, the-then Prime Minister had admitted that the Sri Lankan authorities had failed to act on a tip-off from Indian intelligence. Further, his current ascension to post has been made possible by the Buddhist-Sinhalese nationalists who dominate the parliament. The tenure of the previous government, also propped by by Buddhist-Sinhalese nationalists, had been marked by a rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric and harassment, as well as several discriminatory policies such as a ban of face coverings and the mass closure of Islamic madrasas, both in the name of national security.

Many developmental policies and economic measures are proposed to take Sri Lanka out of its current economic crisis, but they are top-down measures that bypass the provincial council architecture that is a central demand of the minority communities. Furthermore, there are no signs that provincial council elections will be held.
During the economic crisis, dozens of Tamil families also left for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu after selling their possessions. Tensions between the majority Sinhalese-Buddhist and Tamil-Hindu communities continued to simmer during the period under review as evidenced by a court order in July to remove new constructions of a Hindu temple and a Buddhist temple in Mullaitivu district in Northern Province. In June, the army had facilitated the building of a Buddhist temple on the site.

With the Sri Lankan Penal code criminalising same-sex activity between consenting adults, the members of LGBTIA+ community have been denied their rights in the county. In March, the United Nations office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that this criminalisation means that ‘discrimination, violence and harassment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community in Sri Lanka will continue with impunity’ and called on decriminalisation of same-sexual activity. A bill has been presented in parliament to decriminalise same-sex activity and President Wickremesinghe in September said that the government would not oppose the bill. But he also said it would be on the discretion of lawmakers on how they vote on the bill.

In March 2023 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board approved a nearly $3 billion bailout plan for the bankrupt nation Monday and about $333 million was to be disbursed immediately to help alleviate the country’s humanitarian crisis. The approval also will open up financial support from other institutions. The IMF Fund said Tuesday it is assessing Sri Lanka’s governance in the first case of an Asian country facing scrutiny for corruption as part of a bailout program. The economic crisis has impacted vulnerable communities the most and this includes women, children and marginalised communities such as the Tamil communities living in the plantations, and those still recovering from war-affected areas.