A mother of two has become the first Christian woman in Pakistan to be sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Asia Bibi, a field laborer in her thirties, was handed the sentence by a court of sessions in Punjab province Sunday evening.

She was found guilty of committing blasphemy against her fellow farm workers in the village of Ittanwali during a heated discussion about religion in June last year. more >>

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Compass Direct News) – 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.

Police found the bodies of attorney and evangelist Edwin Paul and his family on Tuesday morning 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. more >>

An India-born mission leader is pleading for Christians in America to “not grow weary in well-doing” and continue to stand with those who are bringing relief – and God’s healing love – to the victims of Pakistan’s massive flooding.

“[W]e should be looking at things like the Macedonian believers did in the New Testament,” said K.P. Yohannan, founder and president of Gospel For Asia. “They were in terrible poverty and had nothing for themselves, but they thought about others who were suffering and contributed and shared what they could. I think this is the biblical and godly attitude we should maintain.”

It has been nearly two months since extremely heavy monsoon rains unleashed floods that spread across Pakistan, killing more than 1,700 people and damaging or destroying nearly 1.9 million homes. Now, seven weeks later, some areas still remain under water, and food, shelter and other emergency aid is still being supplied to displaced people. more >>

SARGODHA, Pakistan (Compass Direct News) – A mob of Muslim extremists on Thursday shot at and beat dozens of Christians, including one cleared of “blasphemy” charges, in Punjab Province’s Gujrat district, Christian leaders said.

The attack on Tariq Gill, exonerated of charges of blaspheming the Quran on Sept. 3, 2009, and on his father Murad Gill, his mother and the other Christian residents was the latest of more than 10 such assaults on the Christian colony of Mohalla Kalupura, Gujrat city, since Sept. 8, the Rev. Suleman Nasri Khan and Bishop Shamas Pervaiz told Compass.

About 40 Islamists – some shooting Kalashnikovs and pistols at homes and individuals on the street, others brandishing axes and clubs – beat some of the Christians so badly that they left them for dead, Pastor Khan said. So far, 10 families have been targeted for the attacks. more >>

Nearly two months after extremely heavy monsoon rains unleashed floods in northwest Pakistan, Christian relief groups on the ground say the situation there remains “critical.”

“Many people are living in tents and makeshift shelters without access to food, clean water, sanitation or medical care,” reported Joanne Fairley, Lutheran World Relief’s regional director for Asia and the Middle East.

“Their crops are destroyed, their livelihoods washed away. Disease is a constant threat,” added Anila Gill, executive secretary of Caritas Pakistan. “Lives can be saved if [we] act quickly to provide the most vulnerable with aid.” more >>

A U.S. Muslim group decided to help Pakistani flood victims through a Christian humanitarian aid agency, the latter group reported Tuesday.

The Muslim Community of North East Tennessee (MCNET) donated the $11,000 it raised to help the families in the hard-hit town of Shabarra in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa Province (formerly known as the Northwest Frontier) to World Vision.

MCNET’s organizers, who are Pakistani Americans, praised the Christian aid agency for distributing relief supplies bought using the donation in a “very organized and dignified way.” The group said it wants to raise more money and support more families in Shabarra, which has not received any aid other than from WV. more >>