The police arrested a man named Sher Shah in connection with this murder case.
The murder of a Sikh couple in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has once again drawn international attention to the plight of minorities in that country. The bodies of the couple, who were attendants of a gurdwara located in Babu Mohalla of Mardan city, were found inside the premises of the gurdwara on Wednesday. The deceased have been identified as Jagan Nath (70) and Asma Wanti.
According to the Mardan district police, both were shot dead. The police have arrested a person named Sher Shah, a resident of village Amjugarhi in Mardan district, in connection with this murder case. The police claim that he is not a member of any terrorist organization. Despite such claims, the police have not clarified the purpose for which the murders were carried out. Appealing not to give a communal tone to this matter, District Police Chief Masood Ahmed Bangash has also formed a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) for a thorough investigation. But despite the claim of arrest of the main accused, the police have made this case more mysterious by not explaining the reason for the killing of an old and poor sevadar couple. The disappearance of the police guard posted in the gurdwara and the failure of CCTV cameras also make this mystery deeper.
More than half of the total Sikh population in Pakistan (estimated at around 30,000) resides in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Half a century ago, the province (then known as the Frontier Province) had a Sikh and Hindu population of over 70,000. But due to lack of security, widespread religious discrimination and lack of business opportunities, many families migrated either to India or to Europe and Canada.
Some other families moved to Nankana Sahib in search of better security. At present, Sikh families generally live in the cities of Amman, Peshawar or Mardan; even there, only in Sikh neighborhoods. Such religious neighborhoodism is not their choice, it is a compulsion. It is worth mentioning that during the partition of 1947, there was much less bloodshed in the provincial border than in the rest of Pakistan. The main reason for this was the political and social dominance of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Badshah Khan), known as the Frontier Gandhi, in that province.
He was against separation from India, but his sentiments were not appreciated by the then Congress leaders. Despite the disappointment arising from this stand of the Congress, he made the safety of Sikhs and Hindus his mission. It is true that most Hindu-Sikh families chose to migrate to India in view of future concerns, yet about 70 thousand Hindu-Sikhs remained in that state. It is a different matter that this decision did not prove to be economically beneficial for them.
Attacks on such families struggling with financial hardship due to religious hatred have been increasing from time to time for the last two and a half decades. This has also been mentioned in the report of Amnesty International. The Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Faisal Karim Kundi, while condemning the above killings, has ordered the police to complete the investigation at the earliest. He has also announced financial assistance to the heirs of the deceased.
Many religious organizations and political parties in India, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, have also condemned the murder and asked the Pakistani authorities to ensure the safety of minorities. It is hoped that the Pakistani authorities will take the path of solving the mystery of the murder of the elderly couple seriously. They are very concerned about the alleged discrimination against the minority (Muslim) community in India. It is better that they focus this concern on reducing the persecution of minorities in their own country.
