Religious extremism is on the rise in Pakistan and violence reached an unprecedented level last year, according to a human rights report received Wednesday.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's 2002 report paints a sad tale of rights being ignored, "brutality at the hands of police and paramilitary forces" and political and legal manipulation by the powerful military to retain its rule despite general elections last October.
Commenting on the sad state of Pakistan's judicial system, the human rights report said an 18-month-old child was kept locked up for 18 months for possessing a Kalashnikov gun. Of the 212,450 cases registered under the country's repressive Hadood Ordinance, which makes sex outside of marriage punishable by death, only 10,112 cases were decided last year. Most of those charged are women.
Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led war in neighboring Afghanistan led to some of the problems faced in this poor nation of 140 million people, the report said.
Foreigners and minorities here were targeted by extremists, who supported Afghanistan's deposed Taliban and who publicly expressed outrage at President Pervez Musharraf's aid to coalition forces to oust the religious militia. The extremists took their revenge with terrorists attacks, said the report.
"This year saw the unleashing of unprecedented violence within the country by terrorists," said the human rights report. "Dozens, almost all of them western nationals or local Christians, were killed by militants' bullets while the fear of more attacks meant that minority communities were left more vulnerable than ever before."
The death last year of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and the gruesome three-minute video tape of his execution "sent out waves across the world and signaled that the country was now a more dangerous place than ever before," the report said.
The list of human rights offenses included attacks by police and paramilitary on groups protesting a variety of concerns from unemployment to political repression.
But Pakistan's government disagreed with the report saying it was doing its best to protect the country's minorities and respected human rights. Bringing to justice the perpetrators of violent crimes is the aim of the government
"The government is doing whatever is possible for the protection of all citizens regardless of whether they are Muslims or Christians," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.