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15 July
2008
KARACHI, PAKISTAN -
A tense calm returned
Tuesday, July 15, to the outskirts of Pakistan's largest city, Karachi,
after several Christians, including a pastor, were injured when Muslim
militants stormed a Protestant church during a prayer service.
Witnesses said an angry
Muslim mob raided the United Presbyterian Church in the suburb of
Noorknan last week, July 10, carrying "swords, daggers and batons" and
slogans that included "Infidels!" and "Stop false rituals."
Up to "18 Muslims of the
radical group entered in to the Church and attacked and desecrated the
church" and destroyed a Bible and other Christian books placed on the
altar, said advocacy group Compassion Asia in a statement .
They allegedly said that
the worshipers were "infidels" who "can not stay" in Pakistan as this
"is the country of Muslims." The believers were reportedly told to
“recant Christianity and become Muslims or be ready to die."
ATTACKING BELIEVERS
Compassion Asia said the
mob also attacked believers, seriously injuring Pastor Iqbal Anthony
"with daggers and swords." The pastor and several other wounded
Christians, including women and girls, were rushed to hospital with
unspecified injuries, local believers said.
This was the second
major attack on the church since 2001, Muslim residents backed by local
leaders militants destroyed the building. The government of Sindh
Province later gave permission to Pastor Anthony to rebuild the church
at the same location with support of the congregation.
Following last week's
attack, Christians have appealed to the provincial government to take
action against Muslim attackers and to beef up security around the
church and Christian residential areas. It was not immediately clear
Tuesday, July 15, what if any measures had been taken by local
authorities. The church attack came amid growing concern over Islamic
extremism in Pakistan.
Source: Compassion Asia
2/15/08
Muslims Seek Revenge Murder Christian
Teenager After Settling Dispute
Amir Saleem, a 13-year-old Christian boy,
was murdered by Attiq and
Sharjeel,
Muslim neighbors from a village in Sheikhupura district, on January 11,
2008.
Full Story.
For more general information please
go to ICC's webpage on
Pakistan.

2/10/08
Christian
Youth "Kidnapped" for trying to marry Muslim woman.
The
father of a Pakistani Christian continued to search for his son (Anneal) who
was
allegedly kidnapped two weeks ago by suspected religious
extremists, after attempting
to marry a Muslim woman.
Full Story.
For more general
information please go to ICC's webpage on
Pakistan.

01/23/08
Pakistan (ICC) Muslim Radicals Mistakenly Murder Brother of a
Pakistani Christian Accused of Blasphemy
Islamic
extremists have murdered a man after mistaking him for his brother,
who had been accused of blasphemy against Islam. Simon Emmanuel was
shot to death after his brother, who has been living in the United
States, came home to visit his family. The police tried to cover up
the! murder as a suicide.
Full Story
For more
general information please go to ICC's webpage on
Pakistan.

Pakistani Taleban
kidnap five Christians:
PESHAWAR: Suspected militants
associated with Commander Baitullah Mahsud on Friday kidnapped five
Christians in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), Pakistan's English Daily
"The News" has reported.
The story quoted unnamed
sources as telling "The News" by telephone from the troubled region that
the armed militants stopped a vehicle, which was carrying passengers
from Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan,
(Northern Pakistan, the strong holds of Alqaeda) to D. I. Khan.
Among the passengers,
five were Christians, whom the militants
took into custody and drove them later towards an undisclosed location.
Local officials of the
political administration confirmed the kidnapping and said no effort
could be made for their release as the area where they were disembarked
from a vehicle was a stronghold of Mahsud tribal
militants, (in Afghanistan) it added.
On the other hand,
militants affiliated with Baitullah Mahsud made
the release of Christians conditional with the freeing of six prominent
militants now in custody of law-enforcement agencies.
(ANS)
Please pray for the release
of these kidnapped Christians.
Altaf

|
Benazir Bhutto
Assassinated
Dec. 27, 2007
Bhutto
was the only
Pakistani
politician who had a soft corner in her heart for the
(Christian) minority. May God be with her family and give them
strength, at this very difficult time of grief .
This has brought us to the point that we can not
keep the office of the ministry, in the house. The upper floor
of the house is being used as office. According to the recent
developments
we have to
move it away for security
reasons. We feel that it should be done soon. |
|

Benazir Bhutto
Assassinated
Dec. 27, 2007
She wanted equal rights for
the Christian minority |
|
We have visited some places in the
suburbs, that could be safe in the future during the street protests.
Please pray for this immediate move, and lift it before the Lord that he
takes us to the right location. We believe, that the Lord will provide
the required finances needed to buy the property.
Pakistan, is
97% Moslem and there are only 2.5% Christian, under persecution.

foxnews.com
Taliban Tells
Pakistani Christians: Convert or Die
|
 |
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Christians in a Pakistani town
beset by pro-Taliban militants sought government protection
Wednesday, the eve of a deadline for them to convert to Islam or
face violence.
About 500 Pakistani Christians in Charsadda, a town in the North
West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, received letters
earlier this month telling them to close their churches and
convert by Thursday or be the target of "bomb explosions."
Several Christians, a tiny minority in the predominantly Muslim
country, have fled town and others are living in fear, community
leaders said. |
Some
complained that police were not taking the threat seriously.
Police say someone is joking with us by writing these
letters," Chaudhry Salim, a Charsadda Christian leader, said during a
news conference in
Islamabad. "They have deployed only two policemen at our churches
... this is the kind of security we are getting now."
Shahbaz Bhatti, a prominent Christian leader and head of the
All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, said the provincial
government, which is controlled by a coalition of pro-Taliban religious
parties, would bear blame for attacks after the deadline.(
Bhatti also urged Muslim religious scholars to condemn the
threats and said the
federal government should take "concrete steps to provide
protection" to Christians.
Asif Daudzai, a spokesman for the provincial government, asked
Christians not to panic, saying authorities were doing all they could to
ensure their protection.
"Christians are our brothers and sisters, and we will not
allow any one to harm them," he told The Associated Press.
Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious minorities make
up about 3 percent of
Pakistan's 160 million residents.
Most live peacefully alongside the Muslim majority, although
the groups have been targeted repeatedly in attacks blamed on extremists
since the country allied itself with the
United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Islamic radicals trying to impose Taliban-style social edicts
in northwestern Pakistan are growing bolder, bombing shops selling
Western films, threatening barbers for trimming beards and warning
hotels to remove televisions from guest rooms.
Minorities and secular opposition parties say the government
is doing too little to counter the "Talibanization" of growing swaths of
the country.
Police say someone is joking with us by writing these
letters," Chaudhry Salim, a Charsadda Christian leader, said during a
news conference in
Islamabad. "They have deployed only two policemen at our churches
... this is the kind of security we are getting now."
Shahbaz Bhatti, a prominent Christian leader and head of the
All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, said the provincial
government, which is controlled by a coalition of pro-Taliban religious
parties, would bear blame for attacks after the deadline.(
Bhatti also urged Muslim religious scholars to condemn the
threats and said the
federal government should take "concrete steps to provide
protection" to Christians.
Asif Daudzai, a spokesman for the provincial government, asked
Christians not to panic, saying authorities were doing all they could to
ensure their protection.
"Christians are our brothers and sisters, and we will not
allow any one to harm them," he told The Associated Press.
Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious minorities make
up about 3 percent of
Pakistan's 160 million residents.
Most live peacefully alongside the Muslim majority, although
the groups have been targeted repeatedly in attacks blamed on extremists
since the country allied itself with the
United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Islamic radicals trying to impose Taliban-style social edicts
in northwestern Pakistan are growing bolder, bombing shops selling
Western films, threatening barbers for trimming beards and warning
hotels to remove televisions from guest rooms.
Minorities and secular opposition parties say the government
is doing too little to counter the "Talibanization" of growing swaths of
the country.

Churches Attacked and Burnt:
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,175385,00.html
ANOTHER CHRISTIAN MARTYRED:
http://www.persecution.org/newsite/countrynews.php?newscode=411&PHPSESSID=4323625508254623f30d480df3aed0a7
TWO MORE CHRISTIANS MARTYRED:
http://www.persecution.org/newsite/countrynews.php?newscode=411&PHPSESSID=4323625508254623f30d480df3aed0a7
http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/newsdetails.php?newsid=523
Pa-kis-tani pastor suffers in Australia:
http://www.domini.org/openbook/australia200309012.htm
Voice of Martyrs in Pakistan:
http://www.persecution.com.au/news/article.asp?artid=5029A988-78AC-45E5-9251-EE8842339D0D&c=9
http://www.persecution.com/news/index.cfm?action=fullstory&newsID=300
http://www.persecution.com/news/index.cfm?action=fullstory&newsID=296
http://www.domini.org/openbook/unveiling_of_pakistan.htm
http://search.msn.com/results.asp?FORM=sCPN&RS=CHECKED&un=doc&v=1&q=pakistani%20christians
Pakistan: No Justice For Pakistani Rape Victims
Court fails to punish perpetrators of gang rape
http://www.persecution.org/news/PR_2002/press2002-05-15.html
Christians besieged in Pakistan
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030627-092413-5203r.htm
Churchgoers attacked at Christmas
http://www.evangelical-times.org/ETNews/Feb03/feb03n04.htm
Repots on
Terrorism Against Pakistani Christians:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/09/pakistan.attack/index.html
Terrorist attack on Church in Bahawalpur- 17 martyred:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/10/28/gen.pak.christian.shooting/index.html
Islamabad church attacked- 5 martyred:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/03/17/pakistan.church/index.html
Murree Christian School attacked:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/05/pakistan.school/index.html
Christian
Hospital
in Taxila Attacked:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/09/pakistan.attack/index.html
Travel warning in Pakistan:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/12/us.pakistan/index.html
Attack on Christian Hospital Taxila :
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/09/pakistan.hospital/index.html
Seven killed in Karachi Christian raid
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/09/25/pakistan.attack/index.html
************************
US Commission on International Religious Freedom:
http://www.uscirf.com/countries/region/south%5Fasia/pakistan/pakistan.html
***************************************************************

http://uscirf.gov/reports/01May01/pakistan.php3
http://uscirf.gov/action_chooseCountry.php3
**********************************************************
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2281191.stm
BBC on Pakistani Christian:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/archive/international/christians.shtml
NewsMax.com provided this
special message from our friends at The Voice of the Martyrs.
They have some important information to share with you. W
deliberately put some spaces in this article to hide it from search
engines.

" PARVEZ
JAILED UNDER BLASPHEMY ACT—Now Released"

Islamabad:
June 2, 2008

A suspected suicide
bomber has blown up a car outside the Danish embassy in the Pakistani
capital, killing six people and wounding about 20.
The blast will raise
fresh questions about
the safety of foreigners
in Pakistan even
though militant attacks have dropped off since a new government came to
power after a February general election vowing to negotiate to end
violence.
Danish newspapers
infuriated Muslims around the world when they published cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammad in late 2005.
The cartoons, considered blasphemous by Muslims, sparked deadly protests
in 2006 which included attacks on Danish missions.
The embassy in Islamabad
was temporarily shut in 2006 after violent protests over the cartoons.
The blast destroyed the
embassy gate and damaged the front of the building and vehicles in the
compound in the upmarket district of Islamabad where other missions and
diplomats' houses are located.
Police and security
officials said all of the dead and wounded were Pakistanis and the bomb
was suspected to have been set off by a suicide bomber in a car.
Danish Foreign Minister
Per Stig Moller condemned the attack.
"It's terrible that
terrorists commit such acts," he said in an interview on Danish
television station TV2 News. "We already were working under a higher
security level in Pakistan .... . . It's dangerous. There are fanatics
and terrorists out there," he said.
Pakistan went through a
wave of suicide bombings in the second half of 2007 and early this year
but most of the attacks were on the Pakistani security forces and
politicians, including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, killed in a
Dec. 27 attack.
Attacks on foreigners
have been rare since several in 2002, but a blast at an Italian
restaurant in Islamabad in March killed a Turkish woman and wounded
several other foreigners, including some US Federal Bureau of
Investigation agents.
The new government has
opened talks with militants through intermediaries.
But the talks have
raised questions in the
United States
and among some of Pakistan's other allies, who fear peace deals in
Pakistan will free
up Talibans and Al Qaeeda militants to intensify their war against
Western troops in Afghanistan.
The blast coincided with
an anti-cartoon rally in the city of Multan attended by about 200
people.
After hearing news of
the blast, the protesters shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
"Whoever
commits blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad will face more serious
consequences than this," said city cleric Intizar Hussain. "If it is a
suicide attack, than whoever did it will go to heaven."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some pictures of the bomb site:
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