Five Pakistani Christians arrested over ‘blasphemy’

By Dan Wooding and Sheraz Khurram Khan, Special to ASSIST News Service

HARRAPA, SAHIWAL, PAKISTAN ANS — At least five Pakistani Christians have been arrested under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, the Pakistan Christian Post PCP has reported.

According to the newspaper, Harrapa police arrested a Christian man, Ashfaq Gill, on April 28 on charges of “desecrating the Quran.”

It also said that police also arrested four more Christians for allegedly tearing up pages of the Quran on April 29.

Pakistan blasphemy laws are being misused rampantly to terrorize, subjugate, pressurize and intimidate already down-trodden Pakistani Christians.

It is feared that incidences of blasphemy cases as well as all other forms of persecution including attacks on churches, forcible conversion of Christians, abductions, rapes and violence against believers, will escalate after Taliban’s success in enforcing Shariah Law in the Swat Valley, an administrative district in the North-West Frontier Province NWFP of Pakistan located 100 miles from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

The stated intent of the Taliban to expand their authority across Pakistan and beyond does not augur well for Christians, who in the past have been threatened by the Taliban to either convert to Islam or face death.