Pakistani Excise and Taxation Officials 'Manhandle Christians' and Litigate ‘Fake’ Bootlegging Case

By Jawad Mazhar

Special Correspondent for ANS, reporting from Pakistan

MUZAFARGHAR, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- A  Pakistani inspector and his subordinates at a local Excise and Taxation Department have been accused of "bullying and threatening" local Christian residents of Rawalaywala Christian colony in Muzafarghar district in a bid to get bribery or tlleing them that they would otherwise face bootlegging cases.

Waseem Shakir, a well-informed local Christian journalist, alleged while talking to ANS in a cellphone interview from Muzafarghar, rhat two E & T officials have been “persistently terrifying Christian residents of the Rawalaywala Christian town since March 20th.”

Shakir, a staunch defender of Christian rights in Muzafarghar district, claimed that both of the E & T officers had unlawfully demanded bribery worth about USD $2,386 from each Christian family per month or they would implicate them in drug dealing cases.

He added that the total number of Christian families residing at Rawalaywala Christian colony were 200.

The journalist also alleged that both of the E & T officers had on March 24, 2011, litigated a “fake” bootlegging case against a Christian man identified as Aslam Masih. Shakir said Masih was “innocent as he possessed a permit to keep liquor to drink.”

ANS has established that according to Pakistani Law Christians are allowed to keep alcohol for he there own use and permits for this are issued by the E & T department of Pakistan.

Talking about another sad and cruel atrocity inflicted upon a Christian family by E & T department officials, Waseem Shakir alleged that on April 4, 2011, Muslim officers ransacked a Christian house in a bid to extort the equilavent of USD$239, or five bottles of liquor, from an impoverished Christian family.

A Christian woman, identified as Raymona Bibi, and her son Adnan Masih, did not have alcohol or that amount of money to bribe them, "because they were not bootleggers."

We were told by the local Christian journalist that when they said they couldn’t pay the bribe “they [the officials] got infuriated and started thrashing in a barbarian manner the youth and his mother.”

It was then that some of the Christians of Rawalaywala Christian Colony took out a protest rally against the atrocities being inflicted upon Christians by these E & T department officers.

Waseem Shakir told ANS that Christians chanted slogans at the top of their voices during the protest and then peacefully dispersed after some police officials who had come to scene told them that they would take legal action against the E & T officials who thrashed the Christian woman and her son and had also installed a “fake” case against the Christian man.

Shakir added that an inquiry is now taking place into the situation.

Jawad Mazhar is a Pakistani journalist specializing in writing about Christian persecution. He was born on November 28, 1976 at Sargodha's village Chak and raised in Sargodha, a city in Pakistan’s Punjab province. He earned his Bachelors Degree from Allama Iqbal Open University majoring in computer sciences and has taught at various educational institutes in his country. He is also involved with “Rays of Development,” an organization working for minority rights in Pakistan. He says, “My aim is to help eradicate Christian persecution through my writing as I bring the plight of these brave people under the spotlight of the whole world.”

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