New Delhi: Pakistan’s crackdown on over 25,000 Christians living in Islamabad’s Rimsha Colony has led to protests by the members of the minority community. They have been accused of occupying government land.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) ordered last week evictions of the residents of Rimsha, Allama Iqbal, and Akram Masih Gill slum settlements. The orders were announced through a megaphone. Then came the demolitions.
Locals living in informal settlements around Islamabad’s Rimsha Colony said authorities issued verbal warnings ordering them to vacate government land, prompting protests and concern among human rights groups, a report by Christian Daily International stated.
The notices, delivered last week by the Capital Development Authority, apply to several low-income settlements across the capital, including Rimsha Colony and Sharpar Colony. Residents say the warnings have created widespread anxiety in communities that have existed for more than a decade.
The locals, since 12 March, have staged demonstrations, warning that evictions carried out without resettlement plans could leave thousands homeless. Community leaders were also quoted saying that most families lack the financial means to relocate and face discrimination in Pakistan’s housing market, further limiting their options.
“These signs (protests) cry out against oppression, declaring our love for Christ and demanding justice in a land that too often denies it. We will not be silenced or evicted from our faith or our homes. The cross stands eternal, and so does our fight for dignity and freedom,” Faraz Pervaiz, a Pakistani Christian activist who has earlier been accused of blasphemy by the Pakistan government, told ThePrint.
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‘Where will they go?’
Rimsha Colony, one of the largest informal settlements in the capital, is home to thousands of working-class residents, many of them Christians employed as sanitation workers, domestic labourers, and construction workers. For many families, the colony represents stability after years of upheaval.
Rimsha Colony was essentially given to these working-class people by the state government in 2011. The name was given to the colony in the memory of Rimsha Masih, a mentally disabled girl who was lynched after being falsely accused of blasphemy for allegedly having burnt pages of the Quran. The allegations triggered fear and violence in nearby areas, forcing many Christian families to flee their homes.
According to community leaders, displaced families were later allowed to settle temporarily in that location.
What began as a tent settlement gradually evolved into a permanent neighbourhood, now known as Rimsha Colony. Today, it and Akram Gill Colony together house an estimated 25,000 residents.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said on Wednesday that authorities had originally permitted these families to settle in the area, yet are now seeking their removal.
The commission also raised legal concerns, pointing to a 2015 stay order by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that prohibits evictions of informal settlements without proper resettlement.
Minority rights advocates echoed those concerns, citing Pakistan’s 2001 National Housing Policy, which discourages evictions without formal resettlement. They also highlighted the fact that many residents possess national identity cards issued with addresses tied to these settlements, and that utilities such as electricity and gas have been installed — signs, they say, of long-standing state recognition.
Zeeba Hashmi, an educationist and activist, wrote on Facebook that the communities had effectively been integrated into the city over the years, with schools established and civic participation normalised.
“People have built their lives here,” she wrote. “Imagine the catastrophe if they are forced out. Where will they go?”
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)