By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST and the ASSIST News Service
LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS – April 1, 2015)
– The brother of Sardar Mushtaq Gill, the well-known Pakistani human
rights defender and Chief Counsel of the Legal Evangelical Association
Development (LEAD), was shot today in the Lahore area.The shooting took place today (Wednesday, April 1, 2015) at about 12:45 PM (Pakistan time), when the brother was attacked by an alleged Muslim man who is said to have shot him with a pistol.
According to a statement from LEAD (http://leadfamily.blogspot.com), he sustained a bullet wound to his lower back and was rushed to the Jinah Hospital in Lahore, where he was operated on to remove the bullet.
Sardar Mushtaq Gill has now requested police protection for himself and his family.
This isn’t the first time that Mr. Gill has been the subject of attack for his legal work on behalf of the minorities of Pakistan, including mother-of-five, Asia Bibi, who is on death row for standing up for Jesus.
In June 2013, Sardar Mushtaq Gill was held at gunpoint by three armed men who threatened him with “dire consequences”, reportedly in relation to his human rights advocacy, particularly his work defending Christian women who were paraded naked in Kasur district.
Subsequently, in July 2013, around six members of extremist group, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jammat, came looking for Mr. Gill at his home, but they could not find him.
Lawyers affiliated with LEAD have previously been harassed and threatened as a result of their human rights work.
On June 4, 2013, LEAD's lawyers petitioned the Lahore High Court to cancel the bail against individuals who had attacked Christian communities in Joseph Colony in March 2013.
During that attack, an enraged mob torched dozens of houses located in a Christian-dominated neighborhood of Lahore. The mob attacked the houses in Joseph Colony in Badami Bagh police precincts in the provincial capital following allegations of blasphemy against a Christian man.
The man was booked under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). However, it appeared that he had been falsely accused of blasphemy but the police was forced to register a case to placate the mob, a local police official said.
The
lawyers feared that new attacks against the communities might occur if
the suspects were to be released. They were reportedly threatened by
unknown individuals to withdraw the petition and were consequently
unable to appear in court for fear of attacks.On November 2, 2013, gunshots were fired in the street outside his home. at around 6.35pm, but he was not at home, was instructed via SMS by his wife to stay away and remained out of the area for
fear of his safety. It is reported that Gill's brother found bullet shells on the street afterwards.
Then, back in August, 2014, his home was shot at by three men who took aim at when his younger brother and two other friends were standing by the front door of the home of Mr. Gill. All three men fled the area as the shooters fired straight towards them. Although the intended targets were uninjured, a Muslim neighbor was seriously hurt. The shooters fled the scene and their identities and whereabouts are apparently still unknown.
After one of the earlier attacks, the British Pakistani Christian Association condemned this “barbaric attempt to silence a leading human rights advocate.”
They added, “It is imperative for justice that the criminals who conducted this vicious attack be apprehended. Too often similar attacks have resulted in no arrest and the resulting impunity felt by assailants, leads to more heinous attacks culminating in murder.”
LEAD is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in the province of Punjab, that provides legal aid to marginalized people and defends the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan. Sardar Mushtaq Gill has been especially campaigning against the use of blasphemy laws to target minorities, but as he has discovered, this is a dangerous thing to do in Pakistan.
Photo captions: 1) Mr. Gill with his brother in the hospital after being shot (Photo: LEAD) 2) Demonstrators torch people’s belongings over a blasphemy row in a Christian neighborhood in Lahore on March 9, 2013. (Photo by AFP)
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