SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2317Courts also may order that children be sent to reform schools or various types ofresidential facilities, many designed to provide vocational or other training. Juvenileoffenders and, in some cases, homeless and destitute children, may be sent to theseresidential facilities, for terms not to exceed the amount of time until they reachmajority. Conditions in these institutions reportedly are poor, similar to those foundin jails. Abuse and torture of the children in such institutions is a problem; onestudy found that 17.4 percent of the inmates of the Youthful Offenders IndustrialSchool in Karachi had been tortured or otherwise mistreated. Educational facilitiesin these institutions often are inadequate; however, during the year, an NGO in Karachistarted a school for the approximately 1 dozen children forced to live in a Karachiwomen’s prison. Extortion on the part of the staff at such institutions is reportedlywidespread; parents of inmates often are required to pay lower level staffmembers to visit their children or bring them food. Drug trafficking by guards andother staff also is a problem; some children reportedly have developed drug habitswhile in these institutions, and are supplied by their guards.On July 1, the Government passed the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance. Theordinance abolished the death penalty for minors under 18 years of age, guaranteesthat the Government will provide children with legal assistance, prohibits childrenfrom being tried for crimes with adults, and prohibits the proceedings of juvenilecourts from being published.According to press reports, there are several madrassahs where children are confinedillegally and kept in unhealthy conditions, and there were reports of the abuseof children studying at madrassahs during the year. Sexual abuse of boys is widelybelieved to occur at some madrassahs.Female genital mutilation (FGM), which is widely condemned by internationalhealth experts as damaging to both physical and psychological health, is practicedby the Bohra Muslims. There are an estimated 100,000 Bohra Muslims in the country;the Bohra observe a form of Shi’a Islam that was practiced in medieval Cairo.There were no available statistics on the extent to which the Bohra practice FGM;however, the practice of FGM in the Bohra community reportedly has declined inthe last few years.People with Disabilities.—There are no laws requiring equal accessibility to publicbuildings for disabled persons. The vast majority of physically and mentally disabledpersons are cared for by their families. However, in some cases these individualsare forced into begging, while organized criminal ‘‘beggarmasters’’ skim off much ofthe proceeds. Parents reportedly have given children as offering to Baba Shah Dola,a shrine in Punjab where the children reportedly intentionally are deformed byclamping a metal form on the head that induces microcephalitis. Some humanrights organizations asked local authorities to investigate this practice; however,there have been no investigations. There is a legal provision requiring public andprivate organizations to reserve at least 2 percent of their jobs for qualified disabledpersons. Organizations that do not wish to hire disabled persons can instead givea certain amount of money to the government treasury, which goes into a fund forthe disabled. This obligation rarely is enforced. The National Council for the Rehabilitationof the Disabled provides some job placement and loan facilities.Mentally ill prisoners normally lack adequate care and are not segregated fromthe general prison population (see Section 1.c.).Religious Minorities.—Government authorities afford religious minorities fewerprotections than are afforded to Sunni Muslim citizens. Members of religious minoritiesare subject to violence and harassment, and police at times refuse to preventsuch actions or to charge persons who commit them.Sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims continued to be a seriousproblem throughout the country (see Section 2.c.). In Punjab in particular, a deadlypattern of Sunni-Shi’a violence in which extremists killed persons because of theirmembership in rival sectarian organizations, or simply for their religious identification,continued; however, there were fewer deaths during the year as compared toprevious years. Anti-terrorist courts handed down convictions against several individualsaccused of sectarian violence during the year; however, government authoritiesdid not detain suspects in many other cases of sectarian violence. Several incidentsof sectarian violence between rival Sunni and Shi’a groups occurred duringMuharram in April, during which Shi’a Muslims mourn the deaths of the ProphetMohammed’s nephew Ali and his son Hussain. On April 7, a Shi’a lawyer and thesecretary general of TJP, Syed Waqar Hussain, his son, and his driver were killedby unknown gunmen in Karachi; the assailants may have been members of the extremistSSP (see Section 1.a.). On April 12, in the worst incident of sectarian violencesince the coup, unknown assailants attacked a Shi’a religious congregation inMullowali, Rawalpindi, with grenades and bullets, killing 19 persons and injuring37 others (see Sections 1.a. and 1.c.). Police personnel arrested several Sunni Mus-VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00161 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.036 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1