What began on Feb. 19 as a quarrel over a pigeon between Christian and Muslim youths at Nawa Pind Sabu Mohal village, in Sialkot’s Pasroor area in northeast Punjab Province, grew into an occasion to jail some Christians in the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim country, the Christians said.

Gulshan Masih, 20, told Compass that his younger brother, Saif Masih, 18, had quarreled with a young Muslim over a pigeon that led to about a half dozen boys from each group charging into a fistfight and later pelting each other with stones. With the Muslims throwing bricks and stones from inside a mosque at the young Christian men’s homes, the skirmish ended when an elderly female relative of the Christians was wounded in their courtyard, Gulshan Masih said.

A few hours later, police officers arrived and took his father, 55-year-old Bashir Masih, 55, and 50-year-old uncle, Pervaiz Masih, into custody.

“The Muslims had accused us of desecrating the mosque by throwing stones at it,” Gulshan Masih said. “My father and uncle were not even involved in the fight, yet they were taken into custody on false charges.”

Muslim villagers have tried to drive Christians from the village on similarly petty pretexts, he said.

“We own land and cattle, and this may be one of the reasons why the Muslims keep on picking fights with us over minor issues,” Masih said, recalling how relatives Saleem and Rasheed Masih were arrested on a false blasphemy charge in 1999 after a quarrel stemming from a Muslim ice cream vendor refusing to serve Saleem Masih from the same bowl used by Muslims. Rasheed Masih was not even present at the scene of the quarrel, Gulshan Masih said, but was also charged.

Their accusers had carried a grudge again them after having lost a civil land dispute. The brothers were convicted of blasphemy by a lower court, but the Lahore High Court freed them on March 19, 2003.

Hidden Motive
As soon as word spread in Sialkot that the Christian youths had “desecrated the mosque,” Muslims from nearby villages gathered at a police station to pressure officers into registering a false case against Bashir and Pervaiz Masih under Pakistan’s internationally condemned laws against blaspheming Islam, its prophet or the Quran.

Two days later, Tuesday (Feb. 21), police took into custody eight more Christians – Gulhan Masih, his cousin Amir Masih, Mehmood Masih, Irshad Masih, Kashif Masih, Qamar Masih, Khuram Masih and Akmal Masih – in order to increase pressure on the Christians, according to Napoleon Qayyum, a Christian rights activist. He said it was evident that the Muslims were trying to seize a 1.5-kanal (one kanal is one-eighth of an acre) plot of land owned by Bashir Masih, as they demanded that he surrender it as a condition for the release of the jailed Christians.

Bashir’s land is located near a mosque run by one Hafiz Ishfaq, who is also a member of the militant Islamist group, the Sunni Tehreek, Qayyum said.

Police released Bashir and Pervaiz Masih and the other eight Christians on Wednesday evening (Feb. 22) with a warning that they would be charged with blasphemy if they did not meet the conditions set the previous day by a “reconciliation committee” comprising the area’s notable Muslim leaders, Qayyum said – though in fact an influential family had argued successfully against imposing the condition on the Christians.

Muhammad Riaz Dar, the police inspector in-charge of the area, told Compass that the matter had been “amicably resolved” by the two parties. He declined to comment on the illegal detention.

Qayyum said the chain of events was clear.

“Look at how conveniently they threatened the Christians with involving them in a fake blasphemy case and were about to acquire the land without even paying a penny,” he said.

The intervention of the influential Muslim family on behalf of the Christians persuaded Hafiz Ishaq and others against trying to seize their land, Gulshan Masih said. Thus far the Muslims have backed off from that demand, but the village was still volatile, he said.

The other demand imposed by the “reconciliation committee” was that Pervaiz Masih’s son, Amir, not enter the village.

The Muslims suspect that Amir Masih had an affair with a local Muslim girl and took this opportunity to ban him from the village, said Qayyum.

He criticized police for playing into the hands of the Muslims.

“The police kept Bashir and Pervaiz in illegal custody for three days while eight others were detained for a day without any justification,” he said. “The police did not bother to take action against the Muslims involved in the fight. No Muslim was arrested, and no notice was taken of the injuries suffered by the Christians.”

LAHORE, Pakistan (Compass Direct News) – A young man has been charged with desecrating the Quran under Pakistan’s controversial “blasphemy” laws after the Christian had an argument over rent with his Muslim landlord, his attorneys said.

Police in Shahdara Town, near Lahore, arrested Khuram Masih, 23, on Dec. 5 and charged him under Section 295-B after his landlord, Zulfiqar Ali, accused him of burning pages of the Quran in order to prepare tea, the attorneys said. Section 295-B makes willful desecration of the Quran or use of an extract in a derogatory manner punishable with life imprisonment.

Masih told his attorneys he was falsely accused because he had had an argument with Ali earlier in the day over the rent of the house in which he and his wife, Bano, a convert from Hinduism, have been living along with five other families in recent months.

“The charges are completely fabricated,” Masih told attorneys. “Ali has accused me of burning pages of a quranic booklet that had been [later] placed in a cavity in the wall [to keep them from touching the floor], while the truth is that the walls of our room and courtyard are cemented, and there’s no hole or cavity where the pages could have been placed.”

Another of Ali’s tenants, a neighbor of Masih, told the landlord that he had seen Masih and Bano burning the pages of the Quran to make tea and spread the word to other area Muslims, according to the First Information Report (FIR). Soon a crowd of Muslims gathered near Masih’s house and started shouting slogans against the Christians, and Muslim leaders made announcements from several mosques calling for severe punishment of the Christian couple.

Ali, the main complainant in the FIR (No. 1112/11), states in the FIR that he had the couple arrested after he visited their house and found burned pages of an “Arabic Qaida,” a small copy of the Quran. He states that the first two or three pages were burned and that Masih and Bano had probably used them along with some other materials for a fire to heat up water for tea.

Ali states in the FIR that he later realized Bano had no role in the incident, as she was sleeping while Masih prepared the tea. Police released her after questioning.

Masih, a low-income laborer, told a legal team from the Community Development Initiative (CDI), an affiliate of the European Centre for Law and Justice, that he had had an argument with Ali on the day of the incident and had found out about the charges only that evening.

Masih appeared in court on Saturday (Dec. 24), but the judge did not show up. A trial date is now scheduled for Jan. 7, with a bail hearing set for Jan 3.

A CDI team member told Compass that Masih was visibly shaken by the charges against him and wept as he sought protection for his wife, who is now living with Masih’s relatives.

CDI Executive Director Asif Aqeel told Compass that his team has appointed Niaz Amer to handle Masih’s case.

“The case is yet another example of how the blasphemy laws are misused to settle personal issues,” Aqeel said. “There’s no use moving for bail in the trial court because the lower courts cannot sustain pressure in such cases … We will make efforts for his bail in the Lahore High Court once the proceedings begin.”

Christian rights activist Khalid Shahzad told Compass that Masih didn’t know about the charges until he went to police to get his wife released from custody.

“Masih didn’t even know about the charges until then, because he wasn’t home,” Shahzad said.

Shahzad said that soon after news of the alleged desecration began spreading, he and other Christian leaders started efforts to defuse religious tensions threatening the lives and property of between 15,000 and 16,000 Christians living in the Shahdara area.

“Panic among Christians spread after announcements were made from mosques, and several people left their houses anticipating violence,” he said. “Thank God the situation normalized in a couple of days, although we have strictly forbidden our boys from standing in groups outside their homes or in streets and from reacting on unconfirmed reports.”

Shahzad said police were hasty in registering the case.

“They did not follow the procedure while booking Masih, as no police officer below the level of superintendent of police can investigate blasphemy charges,” he said.

Mian Shafqat, officer in charge of the investigation, said that police had seized the allegedly burned pages from the “scene of the crime” and that police had proven that Masih had intentionally burned them.

Under Pakistan’s internationally condemned blasphemy laws, conviction under Section 295-C for derogatory comments about Muhammad is punishable by death, though life imprisonment is also possible. Section 295-A prohibits injuring or defiling places of worship and “acts intended to outrage religious feelings.” It is punishable by life imprisonment, which in Pakistan is 25 years.

LAHORE, Pakistan (Compass Direct News) – In an attempted land-grab in southern Punjab Province, police and cohorts of a retired military official beat two Christian women and shot at Christians who came to help them on Friday (Nov. 25), area Christians told Compass.

About eight police officials led by Sub-Inspector Muhammad Arif of Kot Sarwar Shaheed police station, along with armed associates of a retired senior military officer, Air Marshal Maqbool Shah, arrived at the fields of Nazeer Masih in the Kot Addu area and ordered the six or seven women working there to leave, said area Christian rights advocate Waseem Shakir. The women included Nazeer’s wife, Martha Bibi, and daughter-in-law, Nasreen Bibi.

The men told the workers that they had come to take possession of the 12.5 acres that Nazeer Masih owns in Mauza Sadiqabad area of Muzaffargarh district, which they claimed had now been allotted by the Revenue Department to the Pakistan Army for distribution among retired officials.

Martha Bibi told Compass the women were still in shock.

“We were cultivating chickpeas when the Muslims arrived at our fields,” she said. “They asked us to leave everything and never return because it was their land now. [We said] we have been cultivating the land since 1976, how could we just leave? This angered them, and they attacked us. They pulled away our headscarves from our heads and started hitting us indiscriminately with clubs and punches.”

About 800 Christians have lived in the Mauza Sadiqabad and Mauza Azizabad areas of Muzaffargarh district for the last 50 years, rights advocate Shakir told Compass by phone.

“The Christians are settled on 10,000 acres of land which they made cultivable over the years,” he said. “The land is actually owned by the government, but the Christians have been given ownership of the properties, and the record to this effect is present with the local revenue department.”

In the last few years Muslims have made several attempts to seize the land from the Christians, usually succeeding because Christians are a marginalized minority, while Muslims carry out illegal activities with impunity and official blessing, Shakir said. A similar attempt to take possession of Nazeer Masih’s land was made last year, resulting in a pending case in the Lahore High Court.

This time, Shakir said, the “land mafia” attempting to take the property was led by a senior military official.

“Martha, around 40, and Nasreen, about 28, refused to leave the land, which infuriated the Muslims, and they attacked the women, hitting them with batons and punches,” Shakir said. “The Muslims also inflicted a very serious wound near Nasreen’s left eye.”

He said that on seeing the commotion, some Christians working in nearby fields ran to rescue the two women, but the land-grabbers began shooting at them. No one was injured, and the assailants left with a warning that they would return, Shakir said.

He added that Nazeer’s family has been cultivating the land since 1976 and possessed legal documentation recorded with the revenue department.

“It is quite clear that Shah has used his influence and money to illegally get Nazeer’s property transferred in his name,” Shakir said. “How is it otherwise possible that any person can just come and lay claim on the land, which is already in the possession of someone for the last many years? Everyone is involved in this mafia, which is specifically targeting Christians.”

Area Christians had worked hard to make the land cultivable, as it used to be barren before the government settled them there, he said.

“Can the Punjab government justify this methodical injustice against the Christians of this area?” Shakir said. “The Muslims are grabbing any piece of land they can get their hands on. They haven’t even spared our graveyards.”

Muslim land-grabbers had demolished 150 Christian graves and desecrated holy relics to build shops in the Kot Addu area in November 2010, their efforts fully supported by local government officials (see www.compassdirect.org, “Pakistani Officials Back Muslim Land-Grabbers, Christians Say,” March 9).

Shakir said that five days after the incident and repeated appeals to the Punjab government, officials had taken no action against police for the violence done to the Christian women, much less investigating the attempted land seizure.

“The government doesn’t care at all,” he said. “Deeply frustrated at the treatment being given to us, we blocked the road for some time in protest. It was then that the area’s deputy superintendent of police, Asadullah Khan, assured us that he would request the district police officer to probe the matter himself, because the people involved in this matter were beyond his authority. The assurance is turning out to be eyewash yet again, as there has been no progress in this regard.”

Khan declined to comment on the case. He referred Compass to the district police officer, who was unavailable for comment.

Gulzar Masih, headman of the area, told Compass that Muslims had also set fire to the house of a Christian man named Jalal Masih a year ago in an attempt to grab his property.

“We knocked on every possible door, but the local government remained indifferent to the situation,” he said. “Even though we somehow managed to get the chief minister to mark our application for registration of a case against the arsonists, the police refused to listen to us and threatened us with dire consequences if we did not stop pursuing the matter. The Muslims eventually grabbed Jalal Masih’s property.”

Gulzar Masih said that the entire revenue department was involved in tampering with property documents of Christians to render them landless.

“It is economic persecution of Christians of the area,” he said. “The government must intervene before it’s too late.”

KARACHI, Pakistan (Compass Direct News) – An evangelist was shot dead here on Wednesday (Nov. 16) by an unidentified gunman in what his family believes was a radical Muslim group’s targeting of a Christian.

Zahid Jameel, 25, told Compass that his father, Jameel Saawan, and a helper were opening the doors of their cosmetics shop in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of Pakistan’s commercial hub of Karachi on Wednesday morning when a young man appeared and shot his father, first in the neck and then in the face.

The assassin fled on a motorcycle on which two people were waiting, keeping watch for him, Jameel said.

“We firmly believe that my father was killed because of his preaching of the Bible, because there is no other reason,” Jameel said.

His father had not spoken of any threats on his life in recent weeks, though he had received threats after voicing his desire to start a welfare organization for poor Christians in the Essanagri area of Karachi two years ago, Jameel said.

“That could not materialize after he started receiving threats from some unknown forces,” Jameel said. “We do not know who threatened him, but my mother persuaded him not to put his life in danger, for our sake.”

Nevertheless, Jameel said that his father continued to preach and was widely respected for being a vocal supporter of the Christian community.

“We live in a rented apartment and our shops are also on lease – we don’t have any property, and no enemies, which is why we are shocked by our father’s killing,” he said. “It wasn’t a robbery, because the assassin only walked towards my father and shot at him.”

Zahid said that his mother was in a state of shock, as were his three sisters and older brother, Shahid.

“Our father has been gunned down for no reason at all,” Jameel said. “He used to share the Word with Muslims, but I have never heard that he entered into an argument with any person.”

Jameel said that the family had moved to Karachi from Quetta about 10 years ago, with his father starting the cosmetics business two years later.

“My father was a very religious man, and some years ago he decided that it was time for him to reach out to the people and share the Good News with them,” he said. “Every day he would visit several families to share the Word of God and was very content with his life.”

His father used to sit with him at his shop from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., then go off to visit Christian families to share the Bible, Jameel said. On the day of the murder, however, his father reached the shop 15 minutes ahead of him.

“The young boy who helps me in my shop told us that he was opening the locks of the other door when he heard a gunshot,” he said. “The boy then saw my father trying to grasp the assailant, but the man fired another bullet that hit my father in the cheek and exited from the back of his head, killing him instantly.”

Michael Javed, a former member of the Sindh provincial assembly, told Compass that he had known the victim for several years, as both of them are from Quetta.

“Saawan was a very good man and was always eager to help his community,” Javed said. “I also think that he was killed by some religious forces, because he had shared with me once that he was receiving threats from some quarters.”

The former legislator said that no one had come forward to record statements with the police because of fears for their security, and it was highly unlikely that Saawan’s killers would be caught.

“There used to be quite a few cases of such nature in Sindh, but now the situation for minorities is worsening,” he said. “The government needs to make efforts to provide security to our people.”

Napolean Qayyum of the Pakistan People’s Party Minorities Wing told Compass that the PPP-led Sindh government would make all possible efforts to apprehend Saawan’s killers.

“President Asif Zardari’s spokesman has told me that the president had tasked Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan to investigate the incident and report back to him,” he said, adding that Wassan was likely to visit the family today.

Sharing Life Ministry’s Sohail Johnson said he regretted that the killing of the evangelist would instill further fear in Christians in the city.

“Pastor Saawan’s brutal murder shows that the forces of extremism and intolerance will go to any extent to disrupt peace and harmony in Pakistan,” he said.

Although police registered the case on Wednesday (Nov. 16), they have yet to make any progress in the investigation, sources said.

Saawan’s family was preparing for his burial today, still holding onto some hope that one day his killers will be brought to justice.

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Muslims in Pakistan’s Mian Channu area in southern Punjab Province shot dead an unarmed Christian and injured 21 others, six of them critically, during an attempted land-grab on Oct. 5.

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

“The attackers forced their way into Kashif’s house and started throwing the family’s belongings onto the street,” Wazir Masih, a Christian elder in the area, told Compass.

He added, “They also tore the clothes off Kashif’s three female family members – Violet, 40, Parveen, 35, and Esther, 17, and tortured the family.”

Compass said Masih added that the Muslims wanted to take illegal possession of the 18-marla piece of land (in Pakistan, one marla equals 30.25 square yards), which the government makes available to laborers or craftsmen in exchange for the help they can offer to villagers.

A previous Muslim resident of the property had falsified a sale of the land to a local Muslim group, a fraudulent act as no one is permitted to sell government land in a personal capacity, Masih said.

Compass reported that Masih said the Muslims suddenly began firing indiscriminately on the Christians, killing 25-year-old Sajid Bashir Masih and seriously injuring 21 others, including women and children. Six of the injured were in critical condition, one of them Sajid Bashir Masih’s younger brother, Haroon.

“The Christians had done nothing to provoke the Muslims into employing such brute force,” Compass reported Masih said. “They just opened fire on the defenseless people with their automatic rifles and shotguns.”

For more information about Compass Direct News go to www.compassdirect.org

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that hundreds of Muslims in Gujranwala, Pakistan, on Saturday (April 30) attacked Christians’ homes, a school and a Presbyterian church building after learning that police had released two Christians accused of “blasphemy” – amid reports of another alleged desecration of the Quran.

“Mushtaq Gill and his son Farrukh Mushtaq were released on Friday afternoon (April 29) after a handwriting expert hired by police determined that the latter had not written a threatening note accompanying burned pages of the Quran, police sources said,” stated the CDN story.

“A mob started rioting and hurling rocks at the Christians’ homes and at an elementary school owned by a Christian, Eric Isaac, who was among eight Christians that police took into custody for questioning, police said.

“The mob also pelted the Aziz Colony Presbyterian Church building, they said. Armed with clubs and batons, the protestors clashed with police who arrived to provide security to the besieged Christians.

“At least 18 people – 15 Muslim protestors and three policemen – were injured and had to be hospitalized after officers used tear gas and batons to disperse the mob, police sources said. There were no reports of injured Christians.”

The two Christians had been taken into protective custody on April 15. On Saturday morning (April 30), however, as news of their release spread, a Muslim claimed that pages of the Quran had been burned in Gujranwala’s Aziz Colony cemetery in Punjab Province.

“Announcements over area mosque loudspeakers began blaring, and Muslim residents and members of extremist groups began gathering,” the CDN story went on to say. “The mob started rioting and hurling rocks at the houses of Christians, including a school owned by a Christian, Eric Isaac, who was among eight Christians that police took into custody for questioning, as well as at a neighborhood church building.”

At least 18 people – 15 Muslim protestors and three policemen – were injured and had to be hospitalized after police used tear gas and batons to disperse the mob. There were no reports of injured Christians. Around 150 protestors were arrested, with two cases registered against them for attacking Christian property and “creating a law and order situation.”

Retired Maj. Timothy Nasir, principal of Faith Theological Seminary in Gujranwala, told Compass by telephone that the violent riots had forced a large number of Christian families to flee the area.

The Rev. Emanuel Mani of the Saint Anthony’s Catholic Cathedral in Lahore, who served in Gujranwala for more than 24 years before moving to Lahore some years ago, told CDN that he was actively involved in cooling tensions. On his way back from Gujranwala on Saturday, Mani told Compass that he had been in constant contact with area Muslim leaders and the district administration, and that they were highly cooperative in the effort to keep Christians safe.

“Such cooperation is exemplary and should be exercised in all such situations,” Mani said. “The Muslim leaders have been discouraging miscreants within their ranks from damaging Christians’ property or harming any one.”

Adding that Christians’ fears were natural, he said he hoped the situation would be resolved peacefully, and that families that have left the area would soon return.

He confirmed reports that someone had been accused of desecrating the Quran in the area on Saturday (April 30), saying that some elements were trying to “fuel religious tensions in the city.”

CDN stated, “A member of Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan who visited Aziz Colony and nearby areas told Compass that he had witnessed locks on most Christians’ houses, while some Muslim residents displayed placards depicting their religious affiliation to save themselves from rioters. He said his team was stopped at least three times by Muslim youths patrolling the area and questioned about the purpose of their visit.”

Gujranwala Police Chief Ghulam Muhammad Dogar told Compass by phone that the protestors would not be allowed to target and harass the Christians.

“Stern action will be taken against the provocateurs of the riots,” Dogar said. “The police are investigating the two incidents of Quran desecration, and only those responsible for the crime will be punished.”

Besides prohibiting the gathering of more than four persons at one place, he said that he had sought deployment of additional forces to protect the lives and property of the city’s Christian community.

CDN concluded by saying that Police and the local administration have now formed an eight-member committee comprising of six Muslims and two Christians, namely Pastor Sharif Alam of Presbyterian Church Ghakarmandi and Father Joseph Julius, to help in the investigation.

HYDERABAD, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Another brutal murder of Christians has taken place in Pakistan leaving two Christian worshippers dead and two others critically wounded.

The killings took place on the evening of Monday, March 21, 2011, outside a Salvation Army Church in Hurr Camp, a colony of working-class Christians in Hyderabad, that was celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Reports said that at least 12 Muslim men opened fire and shot dead two Christian worshippers and critically injured two others during a row over loud music the Muslims were playing on their cell phones and also after they started teasing Christian women as they arrived for the celebration.

Compass Direct News (CDN) – www.compassdirect.org — is stating that the Christians — Younis Masih, 47, Siddique Masih, 45, Jameel Masih, 22, and a 20-year-old identified as Waseem – “came out of the church building to stop the Muslim youths from teasing the Christian women, telling them to respect the sanctity of the church.

“A verbal clash ensued, after which the Muslim youths left, only to return with handguns.”

Witnesses told Compass by phone that the Muslim youths opened fire on the Christians, killing Younis Masih and Jameel Masih instantly, and seriously injuring Siddique Masih and Waseem. The injured men have been transferred to a hospital in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.

“Younis Masih is survived by his wife and four children, while Jameel Masih was married only a month ago, and his sudden death has put his family into a state of shock,” said Compass Direct in its report.

“My son had gone to the church to attend the anniversary celebrations from our family…a few hours later we were told about his death,” a wailing Surraya Bibi told Compass by telephone from Hyderabad. “I got him married only a month ago. The cold-blooded murderers have destroyed my family, but our most immediate concern is Jameel’s wife, who has gone completely silent since the news was broken to her.”

Ms. Bibi said that the local police’s “indifference” towards the brutal incident had exacerbated the Christians’ sorrow.

A local Christian resident, who saw the violent incident and spoke to ANS on condition of anonymity, said that the special 30th anniversary prayer and worship ceremony was already in progress when the incident began to evolve.

“There were several Muslim youths from the Palari tribe who were sitting outside the church and playing loud music and making rude remarks to the women as they arrived,” he said. “Then, some of the church members went outside to ask the youths to stop playing the loud music and show respect for the Christian women.”

Elvis Steven, a local Christian rights defender, told ANS that this “infuriated the Muslim men and they started a quarrel with the Christian men.”

Steven went on to say, “The Palari tribal youths went away and returned brandishing deadly weapons opened fire on the Christian worshippers as they were returning home after the conclusion of the service.”

Eye-witnesses, on condition of anonymity, also told ANS, that several Muslim Palari youths have been arrested and charged, while the police were hunting for another eight who were yet to be identified.

Fresh reports have revealed that over 4,000 mourners from Karachi, Meerpur Khas, Nawabshah, Hyderabad and Jamshoroo, took to the streets to protest the killings.

Before the burial ceremony, Christian mourners put the dead bodies on display on the Central Jail Road and blocked traffic for at least an hour and torched tires and chanted slogans calling for immediate arrest of the killers of the innocent Christians.

They finally dispersed when the police came with the news that they had arrested three of the alleged culprits, but before they did, the Christian protesters demanded that they arrest other killers, too.

Both the deceased Christians were buried at 1700 hrs today (Tuesday, March 22nd) in a local Christian cemetery.

Dr. Paul Bhatti, brother of the recently slain Shahbaz Bhatti, who is the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) newly-elected head, joined with other members of the Central Executive Committee of APMA, to “strongly condemn” the attack.

Bhatti also urged Christians to “beef” up security at their institutions, including hospitals, schools, and churches.

Compass Direct News concluded their story by saying, “The killing of the two Christians comes a week after another Christian, sentenced to life imprisonment on false blasphemy charges, died in Karachi Central Prison. The family of Qamar David claims he was murdered on March 15, 2011, while conflicting reports from the jail suggest that he died of heart failure.

“If David died from torture, yesterday’s killings bring the number of Christians murdered in March alone to four, the most prominent among them being Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who was assassinated in Islamabad on March 2 for opposing the country’s controversial blasphemy laws.”

So the killing of Christians in Pakistan continue unabated, and the Christians are appealing for urgent prayer for the families of those killed and injured in this latest attack, and also for the safety of all Pakistani Christians.

PAKISTAN (ANS) — Two Christian women were beaten up and publicly humiliated by an angry group on charges of blasphemy in Pakistan.

According to a story by CathNewsIndia (a service of UCA News, part of the Catholic Church in Asia), the incident took place on Jan. 12 in Lahore after a Muslim woman accused her Christian sister-in-law of abusing the Prophet Mohammed.

CathNews said the two women had a minor dispute, after which the Muslim woman went out on the street and leveled charges against the Christian.

Later, a group of men led by Muhammad Sameer, a member of a religious organization, forced their way into the Christian woman’s house and slapped her and her mother, her brother said. He said their neighbors also started beating them.

CathNews reported that Khadim Hazoor, Sameer’s son-in-law, said the mob blackened the Christian women’s faces, forced them to wear shoes on their necks and paraded them in the village on donkeys.

“The crowd showed no mercy even as the women repeatedly touched the feet of the men, denying committing blasphemy and asked for forgiveness,” CathNews said Hazoor added.

The Christian family has left the neighborhood after the incident.

CathNews said the incident comes on the heels of Pakistan’s Punjab Governor Salman Taseer being killed for supporting Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, November 19 (CDN) — Police suspect two Muslim extremists shot a Christian to death yesterday in Punjab Province shortly after the victim was granted bail in a “blasphemy” case – and less than a week after Islamist militants killed four members of a Christian family for their faith in the same province.

In Godhpur village in Narowal district, 111 kilometers (69 miles) northeast of Lahore, 22-year-old Latif Masih died after two men with pistols shot him to death near his home. Inspector Rafique Ahmed said that Masih’s murder was likely linked to the case against him for allegedly desecrating the Quran.

“No Muslim tolerates a man who commits blasphemous acts,” he said.

Read the full story at Compass Direct News.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Islamic extremists killed a Christian lawyer, his wife and their five children in northwestern Pakistan this week for mounting a legal challenge against a Muslim who was charging a Christian exorbitant interest, local sources said.

According to a story by Compass Direct News, police found the bodies of attorney and evangelist Edwin Paul and his family on Sept. 28 at their home in Haripur, a small town hear Abbotabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (previously known as the North-West Frontier Province, or NWFP), according to Haripur Station House Officer (SHO) Maqbool Khan.

The victim and his wife Ruby Paul, along with their five children ages 6 to 17, had been shot to death.

“On Sept. 28 at around 8 a.m., we received a call from Sher Khan colony that people heard gunshots, and there was a group of people who ran from a house and drove away,” Compass reported Khan said. “We went and found seven bodies in a house.”

Paul’s Muslim neighbor, Mushtaq Khan, told Compass that the previous day a group of armed men had threatened the lawyer.

“On Monday a group of armed men stopped Paul and took him by the collar and said, ‘Leave the town in 24 hours – we know how to throw out Christians, we will not allow even a single Christian to live here. We will hang them all in the streets, so that no Christian would ever dare to enter the Hazara land.”

Compass reported the Hazara are settlers from northern Pakistan who are an ethnic mixture of Punjabi Jats and Pashtuns (also called Pathans). Drawing attention for demanding a separate province for themselves when the NWFP became Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Hazara community financially supports area Islamic extremist groups and is known for charging up to 400 percent interest to Christians. Paul had moved with his family to the area in February.

Compass said he had taken up the case of Robin Mehboob, a Christian taxi driver in Haripur who had received a loan of 150,000 rupees (US$1,725) from Noor Khan, an influential Muslim whose lending network extends to some parts of Punjab Province, to buy a taxi. Originally Noor Khan agreed that Mehboob would pay back 224,000 rupees (US$2,580) after one year, Mehboob said.

“I gave my property papers as a guarantee,” Mehboob told Compass, “but then the amount of the interest was raised to 500 percent because I am a Christian – he was demanding back 1.12 million rupees (US$12,893). They have forcefully taken over my property and have confiscated my taxi as well. I am a poor man; the taxi is the only source of income.”

Paul took Mehboob and the documents of the original loan agreement to the Haripur police station, Mehboob said. “We talked to the SHO, who said, ‘You can file a complaint, but I can assure you that no one will testify against Noor Khan, as he is supported by extremist groups,’” Compass reported Mehboob said. “We filed the complaint, and one of the police officers informed (Noor) Khan that we went to the police station.”

On their way back from the police station, three cars filled with Noor Khan’s associates stopped near his house, Mehboob said.

“They came out and said, ‘How dare you Christians go to the police, don’t you know we own the law here?’ They assaulted us, beating us with fists and clubs, and warned that if we try to seek any assistance, they will kill us.”

Compass said Mehboob left Haripur that night and went to his brother in Sialkot.

Compass reported Paul wrote to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Christian organizations and churches for help, explaining how Noor Khan and the extremist groups were driving Christians out of the area by taking over their property or threatening to kill them unless they sold their homes.

Compass said the Muslim extremist groups most active in the area are the banned Jamat ul Dawa, the Sunni Tahreek, and some groups linked with the Pakistani Taliban. The extremist groups were making fake documents to occupy properties owned by Christians, and Hazara investors were supporting the campaign, area Christians said.

The Muslim extremists have also threatened many Christians with death if they do not convert, they said.

Pastor Rehmat Naeem of St. Paul Church in Haripur told Compass that he had also received threats.

“Some extremists sent us threats through phone calls and letters, asking us to leave Haripur,” Naeem said. “Many Christians were forced to sell their property at very low rates and leave the area. Edwin Paul tried to help the Christians – he even talked to the higher authorities, but no one was ready to testify against the extremists.”

Compass said Naeem added that two months ago area extremists kidnaped eight missionaries; six have been released, and the two others are presumed dead.

A First Information Report has been filed in the murder of Paul and his family, and the District Coordination Officer and District Police Officer (DPO) have strongly condemned the crime and instructed the SHO to find those responsible, authorities said.

Compass said Chief Secretary of Hazara Division Ali Ahmed has released a statement ordering a police operation “under the Terrorist Act against the extremists and the Hazaras for forcefully driving away the Christians and killing seven innocent people. We will not allow anyone to threaten the religious minorities. It is the duty of the state to protect the life and property of its people. The DPO has been instructed to arrest the culprits in 72 hours and submit a report or he will be suspended.”