6 Christians Shot Dead by Muslim Extremists When Refusing to Convert

Quetta: August 31, 2009. (PCP report) The Islamic extremists gunned down 6 Christians and injured 7 more in Quetta city of Baluchistan on August 28, 2009, after threats of “Convert to Islam or Die”

The sad incident of killing Christians was target killing when Baluchistan was observing death anniversary of Baluch leader Akbar Bugti and Islamic extremists targeted peaceful Christian.

According to PCP, Mushtaq Masih owned a Laboratory named “Maryiam Labs” in front of Civil Hospital Quetta located in busy city centre.

On Friday, August 28, 2009, at 9:00 AM, two gunmen on motorcycle opened discriminatory firing at Maryiam Labs killing Mushtaq Masih, Naveed John, Naymat Gill, Nadeem Akhtar and Suleman who were in laboratory while 7 other were seriously injured and hospitalized.

The sources told PCP that Christians were receiving threats from Islamic militants to convert to Islam or Die letters and calls from months which resulted in killing.

The bodies of 3 martyred Christians were brought to Punjab in funerals were performed in Lahore and Khushpur.

The province of Baluchistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran is facing unrest from years in wake of violence among Pakistan armed forces and Baluch liberation organizations.

The Baluch leaders blame Pakistan Army and Punjab province which dominates in population and holds control in Pakistan army to be responsible for poverty in Baluchistan and enjoying resources of Baluchistan since formation of Pakistan in 1947.

There are some reports that Baloch Liberation Alliance killed Christian who are Punjabi but settled in Baluchistan.

Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti, Federal Minister for Minorities was enjoying an Iftar Party in Islamabad when Christians in Punjab were receiving dead bodies of killed in Quetta. He was delivering lecture on harmony among religious communities with Islamic leaders in month of Ramadan.

The Quetta killing of Christians have spread fear among Christians in Pakistan and violence against Christian was condemned during funerals in Punjab and Quetta.

Dr. Nazir S Bhatti, Chief of Pakistan Christian Congress PCC have strongly condemned killing of Christians in Quetta and urged Pakistan government to ensure security for safety of life of 20 million Christians in Pakistan.

The Quetta police have registered FIR against unknown people on killing and injuring Christians. The condition of two injured is critical n hospital.

Pregnant Christian Dragged Naked through Pakistani Police Station Miscarries after Police Arrest Her for Theft without Evidence, Hold Her Three Days

http://www.persecution.org/suffering/newsdetail.php?newscode=10680


A pregnant Christian woman miscarried on July 26 after police beat her and dragged her naked through their police station in the Gujrat District of Punjab, Pakistan. Police had arrested her and a Muslim woman after their employer accused them of theft, but police did not even touch the Muslim woman.

The woman, Farzana Bibi, worked as a maid in the house of a wealthy Muslim. During a wedding held at the house, some jewelry was stolen from some of the landlord's female relatives. The police were called, and when they arrived at the scene they arrested two maids: Farzana and a Muslim woman named Rehana. Nazir Masih, Farzana's husband, said, "Police registered a fake theft case against my wife and Rehana without any proof."

Nazir went on to say that the police tortured his wife even though she told them she was pregnant. He told ICC, "Sub-Inspector Zulfiqar and Assistant Sub-Inspector Akhter subjected her to intense torture. They stripped off her clothes and dragged her naked around the compound of Cantonment Area Police Station in Kharian. They humiliated and tortured my wife, but did not do anything to Rehana."

Although Farzana complained of severe pain, the police ignored her pleas and detained her for another two days. When her condition became critical, the police finally transferred her to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Kharian, where she miscarried.

Nazir filed a report with the District Police Officer in Gujrat, detailing the abuse his wife received and her miscarriage. The District Office initiated an investigation after receiving the report, withdrawing the false accusations and suspending officers Zulfiqar and Akhter.

The authorities have pledged to punish all those responsible. Please pray that God would comfort Farzana and Nazir and that justice would be carried out. Please also call your Pakistani embassy and ask them to defend the rights of Christians.

Jeremy Sewall, ICC's Advocacy Director, said, "While we were not able to confirm whether Farzana was innocent of robbing her employers, it is absolutely unacceptable for police to humiliate her and abuse her so severely that she lost her child. The fact that the Muslim woman accused of the same thing was at least treated like a human being just proves again that if you are not a Muslim in Pakistan, you have no rights. The government should go beyond suspending the two officers guilty of this crime and try them for manslaughter."

Pakistani Embassies

USA: (202) 243-6500
Canada: (613) 238-7881
UK: 0870-005-6967

Gojra attack backfires By Gul Jammas Hussain | Published: August 9, 2009

www.nation.com.pk

I've been to that village in Pakistan many a time, but things were different on Saturday August 1, 2009. On that day, dozens of Christian homes were set alight and seven people were burnt to death after villagers received reports that the local Christians had desecrated the Holy Quran.

The village of Korian, near Gojra town in Punjab province, is full of rogues and is notorious for its many different criminal gangs and their never-ending infighting and clashes with outsiders. But over the past few years, a number of so-called vigilante groups have sprung up out of the sinister world of crime of gangsterism.

Many reports say that banned extremist sectarian outfits played a significant role in the conflagration, but it was actually the petty criminal gangs who torched the homes.
Most of the country's Christians - who make up a little less than five percent of the total population - are extremely poor and downtrodden people. Their income is so low that sometimes they spend a lifetime to earn the money to build a rickety hovel. In the weekend attack, over 40 of these homes were set on fire by street criminals who were incited by religious fanatics.

A Christian woman from the area told one of my relatives in a nearby city that the Holy Quran was not deliberately desecrated. She said what really happened was that a Christian recycler was collecting paper from houses when some Muslim family mistakenly handed over some chapters of the Holy Quran and that man's illiterate children, not knowing that they were playing with pages of the Holy Book, made paper boats out of them and floated the boats in a pond beside their house. The vigilantes witnessed this and rushed to the mosque, saying that the Holy Quran had been desecrated and called on the local Muslims to punish the entire Christian community of the village.

The violent incidents shocked the nation and Pakistanis from all walks of life have condemned the barbaric acts and declared that they stand in solidarity with the country's Christian minority.

And Pakistan's vibrant electronic media played a key role in disseminating the news about the tragedy, which caused high-ranking officials to rush to the area in droves, including Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who promised on Tuesday that the government would cover the cost of rebuilding the charred houses and pledged to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. "There couldn't be any cruelty more harsh than this," he said in an address to Christians.

If there is any silver lining to this incident, it is the fact that it seems to have encouraged Pakistanis to become more tolerant and to work to enhance national cohesion.

People burned to death, along with dozens of houses, in Gojra

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8179823.stm

Eight Christians have been killed in religious unrest in Pakistan's central Punjab, after days of tension sparked by the rumoured desecration of a Koran.

The four women, a man and a child died as Muslim militants set fire to Christian houses in the town of Gojra. Two men died later of gunshot wounds.

TV footage showed burning houses and streets strewn with debris as people fired at each other from rooftops.

Officials said the rumours which led to the unrest were false.

Minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that a Christian neighbourhood had been attacked by a mob "misled by Muslim extremists".

Mr Bhatti accused police of negligence, saying he had himself visited Gojra on Friday and asked for protection for the Christians.

Pakistan's small Christian minority has periodically been targeted since Pakistan became a US ally in the so-called War on Terror.

In May 2007, Christians in the north-west of the country sought government protection following threats of bomb attacks if they did not become Muslims.

Here are the names of seven of the people who were killed:

Hameed Masih
Akhlas Masih
Musa
Asia Bibi
Asifa Bibi
Parveen Bibi
Imamia Bibi

Pope deplores latest killings of Christians in Pakistan

Aug. 06, 2009

By John Thavis, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY
Pope Benedict XVI deplored the killing of eight Christians in Pakistan by a Muslim mob and urged the minority Christian community not to be deterred by the attack.

The Christians, including four women and a child, were either shot or burned alive Aug. 1 when a crowd attacked the eastern Pakistani town of Gojra, setting fire to dozens of Christian homes. Authorities said tensions were running high in the area, fueled by a false rumor that a Quran, the sacred book of Islam, had been desecrated.

A telegram sent in the pope's name said the pontiff was "deeply grieved to learn of the senseless attack" on the Christian community. Noting the "tragic deaths" and the immense destruction in the neighborhood, he sent condolences to the families of the victims and expressed solidarity with the survivors.

"In the name of God he appeals to everyone to renounce the way of violence, which causes so much suffering, and to embrace the way of peace," it said.

The telegram, sent to Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad, asked the bishop to "encourage the whole diocesan community, and all Christians in Pakistan, not to be deterred in their efforts to help build a society which, with a profound sense of trust in religious and human values, is marked by mutual respect among all its members."

Pakistan has been beset by political and social tensions, including attempts by Muslim militants to impose an intolerant version of Islam. A number of attacks on Christians have occurred in recent years, prompting Catholic leaders to call for constitutional amendments to protect religious minorities.

The latest violence followed several days of rising tensions in the area of Gojra when rumors of the desecration of a Quran were spread by Muslim militants. Pakistani government officials said they had debunked the rumor, but that "anti-state elements" had continued to foment hostilities.

Church-run schools, which were set to reopen in some cities Aug. 3, were closed for three days to mourn the deaths. The government meanwhile appealed for calm and announced an investigation into the attack.

Catholic leaders have said a major factor in interreligious tension is the abuse of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which severely punish vaguely defined insults to the prophet Mohammed or the Quran. In June, the Pakistani bishops' National Commission for Justice and Peace said the abuse of blasphemy laws had led to the destruction of places of worship and properties of religious minorities.

About 95 percent of Pakistan's 160 million people are Muslim. Less than 2 percent are Christian.

Local Christian Leader Goes into Hiding after Death Threats

On the way home from a protest which he personally organized in response to the Gojra massacre and Christian persecutions , a local Christian leader in Gujrat (he wishes to remain unnamed in fear for his family and community, and so will be called "Mr. Masih") received an anonymous and untraceable phone call. The man who called warned the leader that if he continued to protest the local extremist Muslim activities, that he would be "shot on sight."

"How this man got my phone number, I don't know," Mr. Masih said. "I am so afraid for me and for my family. These things are serious. You just don't understand what these people are capable of. You simply can't know." Mr. Masih explained the events that led up to the protest. "My brother was speaking out against the persecution to the news media, and local extremists who worked at the same place that he works cornered him and threatened him. They beat him up and said that if he did not change his story and tell the media that there is no persecution, then they would kill his family. After they threatened his family, he promised to stop speaking out against them and had to quit his job." After this, Mr. Masih organized the protest.

When asked about the names of these local gangs, he refused to say. "These people have connections everywhere. I just can't say their names. Even our bishop won't say their names for fear of reprisal."

Mr. Masih disconnected his phone after the death threat and was rushed into hiding in an undisclosed location. He now can only leave his place of hiding for brief periods and with guards.

"I miss my family. I hear their voices on the phone, but it isn't enough." He is terribly worried about his family's ability to survive financially. "Without what little income I provide, I don't know what we are going to do. We are desperate, but I simply can't leave in order to work. What if my baby gets sick?"

Mr. Masih has a wife, two children, and two parents for whom he provides. He and his spiritual director are trying to find a way to get Mr. Masih, his wife, and his children out of Pakistan in order to work and send money back to his parents. He hopes to one day seek asylum in the United States.

Mr. Masih explains how his community has depended on him for resolving conflicts between the two faith communities. "I am famous around here," Mr. Masih ponders. "and my life is in danger. With God's help, the United States embassy will help me."

(the author of this article, by permission of Mr. Masih, corrected the English of the statements.)

*UPDATE* (September 18, 2009): As of the third week of September, 2009, Mr. Masih still remains in hiding inside the church, leaving very rarely for emergencies under the cover of darkness or during the early mornings of Ramadan slumbering. Mr. Masih is still receiving waves of threatening calls, demanding to be given his location and threatening to take his life.

"I am so frightened," Mr. Masih had cried when we spoke with him. "I feel like I am losing my mind. I was reading the stories of people like Romero, and this brought me some comfort. But I can't focus anymore. I can't sleep. I can't even bring myself to take phone calls from my family right now. It is just too difficult."

Mr. Masih's American connections are working hard to find someone to take his case seriously, but with the vast number of cases of religious persecution in the world, they are skeptical that Mr. Masih's plight will be heard. "But I still have hope," Mr. Masih said.

American-Muslims Dismayed by anti-Christian Violence in Gojra, Pakistan Islam calls upon Muslims to speak out against injustice

Chicago, Illinois – August 6, 2009 – The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (the Council) is dismayed by the numerous credible reports of violence against Pakistani Christians in the city of Gojra, Pakistan over the past several days. The Council condemns the killing of eight Pakistani Christians in that region as well as the burning of homes and of at least one church and calls upon American-Muslims to speak out with one voice, unequivocally, that the murders of Pakistani Christians and the destruction of property in Gojra is an injustice and that those responsible for these crimes must be brought to justice.

The Council has very strong relationships of friendship and respect with the Christian community in northern Illinois. Among the Christian communities with which the Council maintains an ongoing dialogue are the Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church and various other denominations through its partnership with the Chicago Faith Coalition for Middle East Policy, United Power of Action and Justice, Faith in Place, ARISE Chicago and Protestants for the Common Good, among others.

“We speak of justice as being the foundation of our faith and rightly so, and we know that God commands mankind to speak out against injustice even when we or our family are to blame” said Junaid Afeef, executive director of the Council. “Personally, I believe this is precisely the type of situation God had in mind and that is why we say very clearly that the violence by Muslims against their Christian neighbors in Gojra, Pakistan is evil.”

The Council leadership is reaching out to its friends in the regional Christian community to convey the American-Muslim community’s grief over the loss of innocent lives, for the property damage to homes and particularly for the desecration of at least one church in Gojra, Pakistan and the for the fear and pain caused by criminals acting erroneously in the name of Islam.

Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Denounces Gojra Attacks

Archbishop condemns atrocities in Pakistan

http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2509

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has today made the following statement regarding the violence in Pakistan:

The recent atrocities against Christians in Pakistan will sear the imaginations of countless people of all faiths throughout the world. As the minister of law in the Punjab has already said, such actions are not the work of true Muslims: they are an abuse of real faith and an injury to its reputation as well as an outrage against common humanity, and deserve forthright condemnation.

Christians in Pakistan are a small and vulnerable minority, generally with little political or economic power. They are disproportionately affected by the draconian laws against blasphemy, which in recent years have frequently been abused in order to settle local and personal grievances. They need to be assured of their dignity and liberty as citizens of a just and peaceful society. Their good, their security, is part of the good of the whole Pakistani nation. Those of us who love Pakistan and its people, whatever their faith, feel that the whole country is injured and diminished by the violence that has occurred.

I appeal to the Government of Pakistan to spare no efforts, not only in seeing that justice is done in the wake of these terrible events, but also in continuing to build a society in which all faiths are honoured and in which the most vulnerable can be assured of the protection of the law and the respect of their fellow-citizens.

Hate Engulfs Christians in Pakistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/asia/03pstan.html?_r=3&hpw

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: August 2, 2009



A Christian couple sat outside their destroyed home in Gojra on Sunday, a day after more than 100 Christian houses were burned and looted by a large mob.

GOJRA, Pakistan — The blistered black walls of the Hameed family’s bedroom tell of an unspeakable crime. Seven family members died here on Saturday, six of them burned to death by a mob that had broken into their house and shot the grandfather dead, just because they were Christian.

The New York Times

Attacks began in Gojra over a claim that a Koran had been defiled.

The family had huddled in the bedroom, talking in whispers with their backs pressed against the door, as the mob taunted them.

“They said, ‘If you come out, we’ll kill you,’ ” said Ikhlaq Hameed, 22, who escaped. Among the dead were two children, Musa, 6, and Umaya, 13.

The attack in this shabby town in central Pakistan — the culmination of several days of rioting over a claim that a Koran had been defiled — shows how precarious life is for the tiny Christian minority in Pakistan.

More than 100 Christian houses were burned and looted on Saturday in a rampage that lasted about eight hours by a crowd the authorities estimate was as large as 20,000 strong. In addition to the seven members of the Hameed family who were killed, about 20 people were wounded.

The authorities, who said the Koran accusation was spurious, filed criminal charges in the case late Sunday and apprehended at least 12 people. Officials said a banned Sunni militant group, Sipah-e-Sohaba, was among those responsible for the attacks, the third convulsion of anti-Christian mob violence in the region in the past four weeks.

Christians, who make up less than 5 percent of the entire population, are often treated as second-class citizens in Pakistan, where Islam is the official religion. Non-Muslims are constitutionally barred from becoming president or prime minister.

While some Christians rise to become government officials or run businesses, the poorest work the country’s worst jobs, as toilet cleaners and street sweepers.

It was the poorest class who lived in Christian Colony, a small enclave of bare brick houses where the mob struck Saturday. Its residents work as day laborers and peddlers in the market, often earning far less than the minimum wage, $75 a month.

The Hameeds were having breakfast when the mob descended, wielding guns, hurling stones and shouting insults (“Dogs!” “American agents!”) through their window. The Hameeds did not appear to have been singled out but had the misfortune of living where the mob entered the neighborhood and happened to be home at the time.

When the grandfather, Hameed Pannun Khan, 75, a house painter, opened the door to see what was happening, he was shot in the temple and crumpled to the ground. The crowd then pushed inside, and the rest of the family — at least 10 people — fled to the back bedroom and locked themselves inside. They listened from behind the door as the mob looted the house, dragging away a refrigerator and a cupboard.

Then came the smoke, thick white plumes under the door.

“Everyone was shouting to escape,” said Umer Hameed, 18. “There was no oxygen.”

They waited as long as they could, until they thought it was safe, and then made a run for it, but not everybody made it. Three women, the two children and a man were trapped when the roof collapsed in flames.

As he ran, Ikhlaq Hameed glanced back and saw his aunt. “She tried to come out, but the fire caught her,” he said. “The fire was on her face.”

The rampage began Thursday in a nearby village when Christians at a wedding party were accused of burning a Koran. Few here believed that, and state and federal officials who looked into the case said it was false. Still, local mullahs seized on the news, filing a blasphemy case against the Christian family.

“We were afraid because the clerics had been railing against us in the mosques,” said Riaz Masih, a Christian and retired math teacher whose house was gutted. “They said, ‘Let’s teach them a lesson.’ ”

Pakistan’s blasphemy law has been criticized as too broad, and many legal experts say it has been badly misused since its introduction in the 1980s by the military dictator Gen. Muhammad Zia ul-Haq. Anyone can file a charge, which is then often used to stir hatred and to justify sectarian violence.

“The blasphemy law is being used to terrorize minorities in Pakistan,” said Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minister of minority affairs, in an interview in Gojra on Sunday.

The attackers here left a singed trail of destruction in their wake. The Hameeds’ house was a charred shell, its central room a heap of twisted fans, bicycles, children’s toys and a collapsed cage that had kept pet parrots. The kitchen was empty except for a teapot and a half-burned English dictionary open to the word “immoral.”

Their neighbor, a grain seller, Iqbal Masih (whose surname means “a follower of Jesus”), stood looking dazed, his dried corn spilled on the heap of twisted metal wheels that had been his sales cart. A chest for his daughter’s dowry had been destroyed.

Typical of such attacks, the police, overwhelmed by the mob, did little to stand in its way.

Christians here protested all day on Sunday, blocking the roads and refusing to bury the Hameeds until the authorities filed a criminal case. Late Sunday the authorities did, and the bodies were buried. That was little comfort to the Hameeds.

“Everything is gone now,” said Ikhlaq, his hand and arm blistered. “Our family. Our house. We don’t want to live here anymore.”

Waqar Gillani contributed reporting.