HRCP team finds tense calm in Gojra
ICC Note
Several Christians were killed in Muslim attacks in Gojra Pakistan . The Christians in Gojra still live under tense condition.
07/31/2010 Pakistan (The Daily Times)-The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said on Friday that its teams have discovered that a ‘tense calm’ prevailed in Gojra, where Christians were massacred a year ago.
According to HRCP’s findings, although peace prevailed in Gojra ahead of the anniversary of last year’s grisly attacks on Christians there, that peace was largely due to the presence of a strong police contingent. The HRCP had emphasised on an urgent need to find ways to secure inter-faith harmony on sincere and durable basis. The observations were made in the report of an HRCP fact-finding mission to Gojra. The report, entitled, “An Uncertain Peace”, was released on Friday. The HRCP team had visited Gojra last week and met the families affected, journalists, religious leaders and members of the local administration to determine the status and adequacy of compensation for the affected families, the status of prosecution of the accused and the state of inter-communal relations in the area a year after the Gojra attacks on August 1, 2009.
The team noted that the local Christian community felt that it was being pressurised to reach a compromise and withdraw the case against the accused. “The witnesses in the case are under greater pressure and may not appear in court if the trial is delayed for much longer or if their security is not guaranteed,” the report stated, adding that the Christians of the area apprehended that conviction of the accused might lead to a backlash against the local Christian population.
