Pakistan: 4 more Christian villages deliberately flooded

September 03, 2010

Four Christian and Hindu villages in the southeastern Pakistani province of Sindh have been deliberately flooded, leaving over 2,800 families homeless.

“The waters came as a result of an artificial diversion, built to save the agricultural estates belonging to powerful landowners who convinced-- and some say in a corrupt manner-- local officials to divert the course of water and save their land,” the Fides news agency reported.

“Once again the strength of the powerful crushes the poor,” said the head of the village of Jati. “We Christians and Hindus in this area of Sindh are treated like animals; we do not receive any recognition from the government.”

As previously reported, the Christian village of Khokharabad in the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab was also deliberately flooded, killing at least 15 and leaving 377 residents-- most of them subsistence farmers-- homeless and without means of livelihood.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended that the US State Department place the Pakistan on its list of “countries of particular concern” because of egregious violations of religious freedom. The State Department has disregarded the recommendation.

Only 0.07% of the Islamic republic’s 159.6 million people are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics. 97% are Muslim.

 

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Further information:

• Christian and Hindu villages flooded intentionally (Fides)
• Pakistan: Christian village deliberately flooded (CWN, 9/1)