Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan (Compass Direct News) – Two Christians in Gojra, Pakistan who allegedly fired warning shots as an Islamist mob approached that burned seven Christians to death on Aug. 1 told Compass they were tortured after police arrested them.

Only one of hundreds of Muslim assailants in the fire assault on Gojra’s Christian Town is in jail, but sources said Islamists have provided police a pretense for arresting the two Christian brothers who gave shelter to 300 people. Naveed Masih, 32, alias Fauji (“the Soldier”) and his 25-year-old brother Nauman Masih were arrested on Sept. 2 and Sept. 7 respectively for “rioting with deadly weapons and spreading terror with firing.”

Naveed Masih is said to have fired warning shots from a rooftop into the air and at the feet of the mob of approaching Muslim assailants to try to disperse them, but both brothers deny using any weapons. more >>

Thirteen Pakistani Muslims accused of anti-Christian attacks in the eastern city of Gojra were granted bail, reported a Christian human rights group.

Included in the group were radical clerics who incited a mob attack that resulted in the deaths of 11 followers of Christ and the burning of over 40 believers’ homes in Gojra, noted International Christian Concern.

Jonathan Racho, ICC’s regional manager for Africa and the Middle East, said the group condemns the decision by the Lahore High Court to release those responsible for the “carnage” in the Christian town where about 2,000 families reside. more >>

The alleged suicide of a young Pakistani Christian man who was being held in jail sparked protests Wednesday as dozens of mourners clashed with police at his funeral.

Less than a day after Fanish Masih was found dead in his cell in Sialkot, a town in Punjab province, some 700 people gathered for the 19-year-old’s funeral on Wednesday.

A photographer with The Associated Press said he witnessed dozens of younger attendants tossing stones at police, who responded by beating protestors with batons and firing tear gas at mourners during the funeral procession. more >>

There is a deeply rooted mindset among Muslim extremists that makes them especially hostile to Christians in Pakistan, a bishop from Lahore told American church leaders this week.

An unintended effect of the United States’ war on terror has been how Muslim militants connect Christians, regardless of their ethnicity, to Westerners, said the Rev. Dr. Alexander John Malik, the Episcopal Bishop of Lahore.

“Such a mindset creates problems for Christians in Pakistan and puts the church under pressure,” said Malik, according to the National Council of Churches. more >>

LAHORE, Pakistan (Compass Direct News) – In the wake of Islamists setting fires that killed at least seven people in Punjab Province last month, the latest of several attempts to provoke further attacks on Christians took place in a village on Friday, Sept. 4, when unidentified men tore pages of the Quran and left them at a church.

Police said they were able to cool tensions in Chak 8-11-L Mission Village, near Chichawatni, after the torn pages of the Muslim scriptures were left at the Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church and on a nearby road. Sources said they have witnessed similar attempts to ignite attacks on Christians in several areas of Punjab Province since an Islamic mob on Aug. 1 burned seven Christians alive in Gojra over a false accusation of blaspheming the Quran.

Superintendent of Police Ahmed Nawaz Cheema said the pages of the Quran were left at the dividing line between Chak 8’s Christian-inhabited Mission village and the Muslim-populated Maliks village, indicating “it was planted to create tensions between the two villages.” more >>