Pakistani Muslims Fire on Christians in Land-Grab, Killing One

Pakistani Muslims Fire on Christians in Land-Grab, Killing One: LAHORE, Pakistan, October 7 (CDN) — Muslims in Pakistan’s Mian Channu area in southern Punjab Province shot dead an unarmed Christian man and injured 21 others, six of them critically, in an attempted land-grab on Wednesday (Oct. 5).


Residents of the area told Compass by phone that 40 to 45 heavily-armed Muslims on 10 to 12 motorcycles, two tractor-trolleys and in a car reached Chak 134-16/L village, in Khanewal district, and forcibly entered the home of Adeel Kashif, a Christian carpenter who was living on a government-owned piece of land. 

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Pakistan: Muslim men ’kidnap’ Christian girl in Gujranwala to ’purify her’

By Jawad Mazhar
Special Correspondent for ANS, reporting from Pakistan
GUJRANWALA, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Four Muslim abductors in Saleem Colony, within the jurisdictions of Shisharwali Police Station Satellite Town, Gujranwala City in the Punjab Province of Pakistan, allegedly kidnapped a Christian girl identified as Mehek (aged 14 years and 8 months), on Wednesday, August 17, 2011.
AsiaNews reports that the girl was taken by the main Muslim man so he could “purify her” to make her “Muslim and my mistress.”
ANS was apprised of this crime by Rashid Masih, a Christian laborer and father of six, including Mehek, who all live in a rented house.
According to our ANS investigation, the names of Rashid Masih’s family are: Mrs. Nasreen Bibi, his spouse, Masih’s abducted daughter Mehek, also daughter Soha, and sons Saul Masih and Usman Masih.
The abductors were said by eye-witnesses to be a young Muslim man, and his four accomplices who claimed they were armed with deadly weapons. They allegedly forced their way into the house of Rashid Masih brandishing their weapons in the air. The attack took place in broad daylight, and the assailants were said to have pointed a gun at the head of Mehek, and then forced her to climb aboard a white car
ANS has learned that the alleged abductors were chased by the eye-witnesses, but the armed Muslim men threatened them telling them to desist otherwise they would kill them. They also were said to have used a derogatory word for female Christians.
On hearing the news, workers from the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), led by Khalid Gill, went to the local Police station, where, they said, police "reluctantly" registered the case against the perpetrators.
On the instructions of the Station House Officer, a sub-inspector was deputed to probe into the issue.
However, APMA sources said they were “concerned” that although the case was lodged, no efforts were apparently being made to "nail" the alleged Muslim culprits.
ANS was also told by locals that APMA head Dr. Paul Bhatti, has expressed his solidarity with the victim Christian family and pledged to extend all possible support and help towards them.
Interviewed by AsiaNews, the Archbishop Emeritus of Lahore and former president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops' Conference Mgr. Lawrence John Saldanha stresses that such cases are “common in Pakistan,” and families “can do little or nothing” to save the victims from their captors. He adds: “The Muslim family has an advantage, because the law favors them.”
Rashid Masih, along with his family, had moved from Bawarey Village to Gujranwala city for the education and bright future of his Children, unaware that he would have to face such a fateful situation.

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Jawad Mazhar is a Pakistani journalist specializing in writing about Christian persecution. He was born on November 28, 1976 at Sargodha's village Chak and raised in Sargodha, a city in Pakistan’s Punjab province. He earned his Bachelors Degree from Allama Iqbal Open University majoring in computer sciences and has taught at various educational institutes in his country. He is also involved with “Rays of Development,” an organization working for minority rights in Pakistan. He says, “My aim is to help eradicate Christian persecution through my writing as I bring the plight of these brave people under the spotlight of the whole world.”

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Pakistan: At Last Police Have Admitted That Taliban Were behind Christian Minister Shahbaz Bhatti's Murder

They have backed away from previous claim that a ’family dispute’ was behind it

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries


ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, the first-ever Christian to serve in the Pakistan cabinet, who had vigorously campaigned for minority religious rights in Pakistan, which is 95 percent Muslim, was killed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Shahbaz Bhatti

This news was told to Pakistan’s Senate Standing Committee (Interior) on August 24, 2011, by Islamabad’s most senior police officer, IGP Bani Amin Khan, according to The Express Tribune.

“The IGP said that the police had identified two suspects, but they had gone abroad -- to Dubai -- before they could be caught,” said a message sent to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net )by Aftab Alexander Mughal, editor with Minorities Concern of Pakistan.
According to this group, Bhatti had received numerous death threats from religious extremists before his assassination.

Bhatti had criticized the country's blasphemy laws, which makes it a capital crime to insult Islam, and has also campaigned for the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother-of-five who has been sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy and is appealing her sentence on death row.

According to a story by Declan Walsh in Islamabad writing for The Guardian newspaper in the UK, Bhatti had predicted his own death. In a farewell statement recorded four months before he was killed and to be broadcast in the event of his death, he spoke of threats from the Taliban and al-Qaida. To see the video, please go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/02/pakistan-minister-shot-dead-islamabad
Walsh went on to say, “But he vowed not to stop speaking for marginalized Christians and other minorities. ‘I will die to defend their rights,’ he said on the tape released to the BBC and al-Jazeera. ‘These threats and these warnings cannot change my opinions and principles.’”

Blood stained car after assassination of Mr. Bhatti

Walsh then described the killing: “A small white car carrying gunmen blocked his way. After an initial burst of fire they dragged Bhatti's driver from the vehicle, then continued firing through a side window. ‘It lasted about twenty seconds,’ said a neighbor, Naseem Javed. ‘When I rushed out I saw the minister's driver standing by the car, shivering, and his niece weeping and shouting.’

“‘They fired 25 bullets,’ said a police officer beside a bullet-pocked pavement, holding a handful of brass Kalashnikov bullet cases.”
Walsh added, “As they left the gunmen flung pamphlets on to the road that blamed President Asif Ali Zardari’s government for putting an ‘infidel Christian’ in charge of a committee to review the blasphemy laws. The government insists no such committee exists. ‘With the blessing of Allah, the mujahideen will send each of you to hell,’ said the note.

This latest news shows that the police are backtracking from a previous claim that police investigators in Pakistan were developing a theory that the murder of Mr. Bhatti was due to a “family dispute,” not religious extremism, according to a story on August 9, in the Express Tribune English daily newspaper.

However, this claim was strongly criticized by Christian groups in Pakistan. “This is just another cover up. They want to show that Shahbaz was not killed by religious extremists,” Victor Azariah, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Pakistan (NCCP), told ENInews on August 12, 2011, from his office in Lahore.

Now the police have backed away from this strange assertion and are finally going after the real culprits.

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Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 48 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK and also in Belize and South Africa. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 200 countries. You can follow Dan on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available this link.

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Pakistani Muslims attack Christians in attempt to force them to convert to Islam

By Jawad Mazhar
Special Correspondent for ANS, reporting from Pakistan


KARACHI, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Two Christian men were seriously injured by young Muslims in Karachi when they refused to convert to Islam, a family member told ANS.


Liaqat Munawar, a resident of Essa Nagri in Karachi, told ANS by telephone that his brother, Ishfaq Munawar, and another young Christian man, Naeem Masih, were returning home after an early morning prayer service at their church in Sohrab Goth on August 14, when ethnic Pakhtoon youths near Sea View harassed and later attacked them.

"Ishfaq and Naeem were riding a motorcycle when six Pakhtoon youths signaled them to stop," Liaqat Munawar said. "They asked the two boys to identify themselves. Ishfaq told them that they were Christians returning from their church after a special prayer service.

"The Pakhtoons then started questioning them about their faith and later tried to force them to recite the Kalma [Islamic conversion creed] and become Muslims, telling them that this was the only way they could live peacefully in the city," Liaqat Munawar said.

"They also offered monetary incentives and 'protection' to Ishfaq and Naeem, but the two refused to renounce Christianity."

After cajoling the two Christians for some time, the Pakhtoons sat in a white car parked nearby and eventually drove away. Ishfaq Munawar and Masih got back onto their motorcycle and were about to start it, Liaqat Munawar said, when suddenly the young Muslims reversed their car and rammed it into the Christians.

"The pathan Muslims got out of the car armed with iron rods and attacked Ishfaq and Naeem, shouting that they should either recite the Kalma or they would be murdered," Liaqat Munawar said.

Munawar said the Pakhtoons severely beat the two Christians, fracturing Ishfaq Munawar's jaw and breaking five teeth, and seriously injuring Masih. He added that the two Christians fell unconscious, and the young Muslim men left assuming they had killed them.

Liaqat Munawar said his brother underwent jaw surgery at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and is now recovering. He said the family had not registered a case with police, fearing reprisal by the Muslims, but were now considering filing a formal complaint.

Elvis Steven, a Christian human rights defender in Karachi, told ANS that he was in contact with the Munawar family, and that although he had yet to speak with the victims directly, he would attempt all possible means to have the assailants arrested.

"The situation is not that bad for Christians living in areas controlled by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement [MQM], but those living in areas dominated by the Pakhtoons are under constant threat," Steven said.

"The Pakhtoons are extremist in their beliefs. They have a militant mindset, and there have been several incidents of religious violence involving the Pakhtoons (Pathan clan) in Karachi."

This latest incident seems to give evidence beyond any doubt that this was a religiously based attack and the young Christian men were attacked and injured merely because of their faith.

Political bodies involved appear to be trying to score points by claiming that the attacked youths were from their groups and thus triggering a blame game against other political parties.

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Jawad Mazhar is a Pakistani journalist specializing in writing about Christian persecution. He was born on November 28, 1976 at Sargodha's village Chak and raised in Sargodha, a city in Pakistan's Punjab province. He earned his Bachelors Degree from Allama Iqbal Open University majoring in computer sciences and has taught at various educational institutes in his country. He is also involved with "Rays of Development," an organization working for minority rights in Pakistan. He says, "My aim is to help eradicate Christian persecution through my writing as I bring the plight of these brave people under the spotlight of the whole world."

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