Taliban, religious extremism grew in Pakistan in 2010, says rights group

(January 28, 2011) Taliban violence and religious extremism grew in Pakistan in 2010, with the government doing little to improve the situation and often making things worse, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). In its World Report 2011, released earlier this week, the New York-based rights organisation said militant violence was fostered by the passive acceptance of persecution of religious minorities and had active help from some elements of the intelligence agencies. Last year, hundreds of people died in militant attacks, 11 journalists were killed, target killings terrorised Karachi and minorities were singled out. At least 80 Ahmadis, who consider themselves Muslim but who Pakistan declared non-Muslims in the 1970s, were killed in twin attacks, and bombings at Sufi shrines killed dozens. Salman Taseer, the liberal governor of Pakistan's most populous province, was gunned down by one of his bodyguards for supporting changes to Pakistan's harsh blasphemy law, and Senator Sherry Rehman, who also called for changes, is now a virtual prisoner in her own home because of death threats. The government of the avowedly secular Pakistan People's Party, headed by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, has done little to combat the growing religious extremism, distancing itself from Taseer and Rehman, and failing to curb calls for their deaths from mosques.