Content against minorities in textbooks increased: report.

LAHORE -- A Human Rights Observer 2023 fact sheet reveals that the religious content against minorities increased in curriculum and textbooks during the year 2022 and a number of perennial and new challenges emerged in the education system.

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) on Thursday issued the 'Human Rights Observer 2023', an annual fact sheet. The report covers five key issues impacting religious minorities including discrimination in the education system, prevalence of forced faith conversions, abuse of blasphemy laws, establishment of the National Commission for Minorities and jail remissions for minority prisoners.

The fact sheet showed that as many as 171 people were accused under the blasphemy laws, 65 per cent of cases surfaced in Punjab and 19pc in Sindh.

The highest occurrence was observed in the districts of Karachi, followed by Chiniot, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan, Nankana Sahib, Lahore and Sheikhupura. The highest number of victims (88) was Muslims, followed by 75 Ahmadis, four Christians, and two Hindus, while the religious identity of the two accused could not be ascertained. Four accused were extra-judicially killed - two in Punjab and one each in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2022 - which brings the number of extra-judicial killings to 88 persons in total during the period from 1987 to 2022.

CSJ fact sheet says 65pc of forced faith conversion cases reported in Sindh in 2022

At least 2,120 individuals had been accused of committing blasphemy between 1987 and 2022. The trend witnessed an increase in the aggregate abuse of blasphemy laws in Punjab in the past 36 years - above 75pc.

However, 52pc of the accused belonged to minorities despite their small ratio (3.52pc) in the population of Pakistan.

The fact sheet...

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