South Korea: Minority right activist who was earlier attacked, fear deportation to Pakistan
Apr 18, 2021
Seoul [South Korea], April 18 : Rohat Austin, a well-known rights activist who has been highlighting the Pakistani establishment's persecution of religious minorities, has said that he is on the verge of being "handed over" to the Islamic State of Pakistan.
Rahat John Austin, a Christian born in Pakistan, had to flee from Pakistan and is now living with his family in South Korea. He has been raising his voice for the persecuted minorities back home.
He took to Twitter on Sunday and said he is facing possibilities of deportation and gonna be killed by "jihadists". He also requested the South Korean government to show "mercy on him".
"I am at the edge of being handed over to Islamic State of Pakistan. It means I'm gonna be killed by Jihadists. I am a recognized refugee & South Korean Resident. I hope Great Korea will show mercy & will not violate the rule of non-refoulment of Recognized Refugees. Need prayers," he tweeted.
Early this year, Rahat escaped an assassination attempt when he was attacked by an unidentified man with a knife on January 5.
In a video message then, Rahat Austin had said, "I was attacked by an Islamist jihadist. He had a knife and the words he said were 'Allahu Akbar'. He seems to be from a country in the Middle East."
He said, "I don't know why these violent people do such things everywhere in the world. We are not doing anything wrong. I just personally report the incident of persecution, genocide and systematic ethnic cleansing which the Muslim majority people are doing like `jihad' against non-Muslims."
Rahat has been writing and raising a voice against persecution and atrocities on religious and ethnic minorities in Pakistan since 2009 on different national and international platforms and social media.
He was writing blogs and articles and is the author of two books: "Thousand Shades of Slavery" on human trafficking in Pakistan and "The Dracula State" on the biased constitution and blasphemy laws of Pakistan.
Rahat is working on his third book titled "Pakistan: The Chronicles of Terrorism-- Past, Present and Future", which is expected to be launched this year.
He, with his team of volunteers, reports incidents of persecution of non-Muslims in Pakistan which are not covered by Pakistani media because of the policy of hiding such atrocities.
