Faisalabad: August 7, 2013. (PCP) The violent acts against susceptible groups must be prevented for social harmony and peaceful coexistence, this was emphasized by the participants at a meeting of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) under the auspices of the Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM). Speaking on the occasion, the executive secretary of the AWAM, Naseem Anthony said, “It is pertinent for the human rights defenders to act as arbitrators to mitigate the life threats and control the mob attacks to reduce damages through early warning system mechanism, and mobilize local influential to help resolve the conflicts peacefully before they escalates.” “Religious intolerance is much more deadly and dangerous for human civilization than atom bombs. For sake of preservation of human civilization, the human rights defenders must act as a watchdog to monitor the risks and dangers, which threaten the security of religious minorities, and the factors and acts of promotion of religious intolerance and extremism against religious minorities and other weaker sectors of Pakistani society,” he added. A journalist, Jahangir Ashraf said, “The religious leaders have a critical role for greater efforts to promote the social harmony, respect the diversity and refrain from the hate speeches and insulting other people’s faith.” A journalist, Iftikhar Ahmed said, “Human life is precious, therefore any community must not be targeted for the crime of an individual. The human rights defenders must do their utmost in the crises situations to resolve conflicts peacefully for saving the lives of innocent citizens.” The executive director of the AWARD, Christina Peter said, “The religious minorities across the country come under threat whenever any allegation whether true or false, about the defamation of the religion is put against any person belonging to a minority group. They face a feeling of fear and deprivation, and they are left insecure economically, socially and culturally; resultantly they mostly prefer to migrate to safer places in an attempt to avoid any untoward incident.” “It is imperative for human rights defenders to make joint efforts for peace-building to avoid the repercussions of the violent conflicts on the normal relationship between the different communities,” she suggested. The president of the HRFP, Naveed Walter said, “Both Muslims and non-Muslims suffer from allegedly false charges and misuse of the blasphemy laws. Mostly family, personal, professional jealousy or property issue has led to the misuse of this law to settle personal scores against their opponents.” “The government must create a strict law to prevent abuse of blasphemy laws and punish the complainants creating tension among the communities, and disturbing the peaceful environment, by their evil deeds,” he demanded. Over 50 human rights activists, religious leaders, journalists, political activists, lawyers and youth leaders from different schools of thought, joined the meeting held at unity hall in Faisalabad on July 31, 2013. The meeting was arranged to establish a network of human rights defenders for preventing the violations against the Rights to Expression, Association, Assembly and Thought (REAT), and to warn the minority groups about any potential attacks against them at a very earlier stage. The other among the dignitaries include; Suneel Malik, Nazia Sardar, Shazia George, Arif Ayaz, Faisal Rasheed, Zarfishan Nasir, Kehkshan Newton, Saiqa Gurmeet Singh, Tahir Iqbal, Rai Naveed, Touheed Ahmed, Afzal Akram and Khalid Hameed.