Attacks on Christians Persist in Pakistan

ICC Note

Pakistani Christian minorities continue facing attacks at the hands of Muslims. 
By Success Kanayo Uchime

09/30/2010 Pakistan (All Voices)-It’s very unfortunate how the Christian population in Pakistan is being attacked by Muslim fundamentalists in Pakistan, with the latest attack by Islamic militants on Christians in the Gujarat district of Punjab adding to the strings of assaults on their community in less than a month.

The United Kingdom based Christian advocacy group, Release International (www.releaseinternational.org) said that about 40 extremists wielding firearms, axes and clubs rampaged through the streets of Mohalla Kalupura, firing at people and houses and beating some Christians so severely that they were ‘left for dead.’

Quoting Compass Direct news agency (www.compassdirect.org) and VOM Australia (www.persecution.com.au) it revealed that several residents were ‘critically injured’ in the raid adding that among those seriously injured was Tariq Gill, a man against whom blasphemy charges were dropped in September 2009.

The report said that Tariq’s parents were also badly hurt and that his mother was stripped naked and dragged through the streets stressing that the attack on Gill, who was cleared after Christian leaders and Muslim elders intervened in his case, proved that even an acquittal is no guarantee of safety for those accused of blasphemy in Pakistan.

It observed that Church leaders in the country said that militants have attacked Christians in Mohalla Kalupura more than ten times since September 8. They reported that the attackers threatened to mount an attack on the colony similar to the brutal raid on Gojra in August 2009 in which at least seven Christians were burnt to death.

“Christian leaders allege that three senior politicians were involved in either leading or organizing the attack. They also accuse local police of failing to act to apprehend the culprits. Christians have since staged protests at the National Press Club and at Parliament House in Islamabad, demanding justice for those injured,” it stated.

It continued: “Please ask God to heal all those attacked and traumatized by recent attacks on Mohalla Kalupura also pray that the authorities will act fairly and with integrity to bring the culprits to justice.”

In a related development, Release noted that a church in Bekasi City, West Java, has agreed to move temporarily to a site offered by the Government, following an attack on its pastor and one of its elders.

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