Pakistan

An enormous whale shark has washed ashore in Pakistan.

The 40-foot long shark washed ashore in Karachi, Pakistan, and was lifted from the ground by three cranes. Local residents then bid on the shark, which fetched a price of over $18,000. The shark was spotted unconscious in the water 10 days ago, and fishermen waited until it was closer before attempting to move the fish.

According to National Geographic, whale sharks are human-friendly, feasting primarily on plankton and small fish found in the weeds. "Although massive, whale sharks are docile fish and sometimes allow swimmers to hitch a ride," notes National Geographic. more >>

A Pakistani Christian woman convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death has successfully appealed a court's ruling, just as a petition demanding her release has reached over 500,000 signatures.

Asia Noreen Bibi, whose case has received global interest, including that of Pope Benedict XVI, was sentenced to death by hanging in 2011 after spending more than a year in a Pakistani prison.

Asia Bibi, a wife and mother, is accused of making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad by Muslim witnesses, which she has denied. more >>

A Pakistani man who was mistaken by his country’s court as being Jewish has become subject to arrest, death threats and alienation from his community.

Jew Jurian is a Pakistani Christian from the city of Lahore, Pakistan, who was accused of blasphemy when he wrote his name on a national identity card form. The Computerized National Identity Cards mistakenly declared Jurian as a Jewish man because of his first name, subjecting him to arrest and death threats.

Jurian was released by police in May 2003, but he and his family still face death threats, according to an Express Tribune report. He was released with two other men who were later killed by religious extremists. more >>

LAHORE, Pakistan – 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. more >>

Pakistan will deploy extra police forces and snipers to protect churches in the eastern city of Lahore this Christmas to prevent possible attacks on the persecuted Christian minorities in the region, authorities said Wednesday.

An additional 2,500 policemen, including sharp shooters, will be protecting the area that is home to Christians living in Pakistan, Agence France-Presse reported. Police said there are 433 churches in the area.

"We have placed 38 churches in category A, which are most sensitive, and among them, 20 are even more sensitive as we expect foreigners to visit these churches on Christmas Eve," authorities told AFP. more >>

LAHORE, Pakistan – When Malik Pauloos of Bhakkar district, Punjab Province finally decided to trust a close relative with the secret that he had left Islam for Christianity, there was no question in his relative’s mind that Pauloos’ relationship with the family was over.

The family had been custodian of an Islamic shrine, the Pir Syed Karamat Shah in Kot Islam, for three generations. Though Pauloos had moved to Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province, 20 years ago to start a scrap business, he had continued fulfilling his duty to prepare the shrine for annual pilgrimages – but after he withdrew from it over time upon his conversion, shrine leaders were asking pointed questions about his adherence to Islam.

“I told him [the relative] to get the shrine people off my back, because I did not want to keep any point of contact with my past life,” Pauloos, 36, told Compass. “Although shocked, my relative said that he would first try and make my family understand the situation, and then they could figure out a way of letting me walk away peacefully.” more >>