Sardar Soran Singh, center, is seen here at a Christmas function with Father John William, left, at St. John Vianney's Church, in Peshawar in this December photo. (Photo by Kamran Chaudhry)
More needs to be done to safeguard religious minorities, Catholic and Anglican bishops said, raising doubts over a national anti-terror drive following the assassination of a Sikh lawmaker in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Sardar Soran Singh, 46, was shot dead outside his home in Buner district of the northwestern province on April 22.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for killing Singh, minority affairs minister and a special adviser to the provincial chief minister.
"These killings will continue until implementation of an Islamic system in Pakistan," the Pakistani Taliban said in a statement.The Catholic bishop's National Commission for Justice and Peace condemned Singh's killing, saying it was another targeted killing of a political leader from a religious minority.
"The commission stands strong with the Sikh community over the loss of a visionary political representative," commission chairman Bishop Joseph Arshad of Faisalabad and the national director, Father Emmanuel Yousaf Mani said in a joint statement.Despite launching a crackdown on the Pakistan Taliban and other extremists in remote areas, minorities were still seen as soft targets by militants, the statement said, referring to the 2011 assassination of Federal Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, and recent deadly attacks on religious minorities.
"The targeted killing of political representatives is unacceptable ... It is essential for the government to take whatever action is necessary to provide safety and security for religious minorities," the statement said.
Anglican Bishop Humphrey S. Peters of Peshawar urged authorities to follow a 2014 Supreme Court directive, which called for the formation of a special task force to protect minorities.
The court ordered that this special police force be established with professional training to protect places of worship of minorities.No such force has been established.
"Government inefficiency and inability [to act] are to blame. The rulers are still not serious about protecting religious minorities after years of war on terror," he told ucanews.com."Provincial police cannot protect us anymore; they are outnumbered by terrorists. The killing of a beloved Sikh leader raises questions about the implementation of their counter terrorism national action plan," he said.
Despite battling extremist groups for years, the plan targeting terrorist groups across the country, especially in Pakistan's northwestern areas was introduced in 2015 following a deadly attack on a Peshawar school that left more then 130 children dead.