BPCA are increasingly concerned about the status and persecution of Pak-Christians in the homeland. Finding ourselves in a real quandary with the incidents of persecution increasing in frequency and intensity, our trustees agreed to send a letter to the neighbouring government of India, hoping this might create a much needed safe haven for the millions of Christians in Pakistan.
We felt the ancient ties of brotherhood outweighed the religious zeal that has emerged in recent years. Our letter below was sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukerjee yesterday and reads as follows:
I am writing to you out of deep concern for my Christian brothers and sisters in Pakistan. My name is Wilson Chowdhry, and I am the chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association. I realise that your nation naturally has many grave security concerns about Pakistan, but I would like to draw your attention to the desperate and worsening plight of Pakistani Christians, who alongside Hindus in Pakistan are so terribly badly treated, to Pakistan’s great shame. In fact, currently expert researchers rank Pakistan as being as bad as the lawless nation of Eritrea in its treatment of Christians. I am writing because I believe there is a great opportunity for you to help, not only your fellow Hindus, but also Christians, by allowing them, even encouraging them, with suitable security vetting of course, to escape across the border into India. At the minute those that can flee are largely forced to flee by air or sea to the West, or to Asian countries such as Sri Lanka and Thailand where they can be very badly treated, nations who may, so I have been given to understand, be seduced by Pakistani government and intelligence offers of military help into illegally returning such refugees who have escaped, back to face brutal oppression in Pakistan.
Currently Christians, along with Hindus in Pakistan, have very little scope, if any, to escape by land. There is a tiny border with China, a nation with a completely foreign culture for Pakistanis, and then there are lengthy borders with Muslim fundamentalist Iran and Afghanistan, which are even worse in their treatment of religious minorities than Pakistan is. However, despite the ongoing sporadic conflicts between India and Pakistan, at the societal level you share history, culture and language to a considerable degree, meaning relatively easy integration and also that they could contribute to the Indian economy without the downsides that would be involved in people of completely different languages and cultures being given refuge. As I am sure you aware, Pakistan has an increasingly bad reputation for its treatment of minorities. Unfortunately India too does not have a great reputation in this regard, as the same independent and impartial experts place India as 8 ranks worse even than Communist China for treatment of Christians. However, here you have an opportunity to remedy that somewhat. If you opened your borders to oppressed Hindus, that would be one thing, but if you also opened up your borders to suffering Christians, that would bring a whole new dimension, and several benefits – it would show up much more powerfully to the watching world just how bad and brutal life is for minorities in Pakistan, with all the benefits that can have politically, but also it has been proven time and again that when oppressed Christians have reached a place of greater safety, then they have quickly made a great economic impact for good. Aside from some temporary difficulties, in the long term it would be a win-win situation for India. For these reasons, as well as simple humanity, I am urging you to make it part of Indian policy to welcome significant numbers of oppressed Hindus and Christians across the border to India and give them refuge.
For information on the impartial rankings of the 50 worst countries in the world to be a Christian, see https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/
Yours sincerely
Wilson Chowdhry
Chairman
British Pakistani Christian Association
BRITISH PAKISTANI CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION is a trading name for BRITISH PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS LTD which is a charity entered onto the Register of Charities with the Registered Charity Number 1163363
The letters were also sent electronically via the Government of India’s on-line communication channel and the two references are as follows:
Your Grievance has been registered vide Registration number PMOPG/E/2015/0086793 .Please quote the same in your future correspondance.
Your Grievance has been registered vide Registration number PMOPG/E/2015/0087759 .Please quote the same in your future correspondance.