ICC Note:
Last week, Zafar Bhatti, a Christian pastor in Pakistan, was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of committing blasphemy by a Pakistani court. Punishments are severe when convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan, and can even include capital punishment. According to Bhatti’s wife, Bhatti is tortured by other inmates almost every day because it is known that he has been convicted of blasphemy. Religious minorities accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are often treated much harsher. In some instances, they are even murdered extrajudicially.
05/09/2017 Pakistan (Christian Post) – The wife of Zafar Bhatti, the Christian pastor in Pakistan who last week was sentenced to life in prison under the country’s controversial blasphemy laws, says her husband is being tortured every day.
“There have been numerous attempts to kill my husband — he is bullied every day and he is not safe from inmates and prison staff alike. Every day I worry that I will receive word that he is dead, this worry is making me age very quickly,” Nawab Bibi, 65, told British Pakistani Christian Association reporter Shamim Masih in an article published on Monday.
“I pray for him every day and when we meet we cry together and pray, seeking God’s intervention. I know God will free him one day but ask for Christians across the world to pray for him and to challenge their governments to help him,” Bibi added.
She insisted that her husband is a good man and a committed Christian, and saw his church grow despite “many Muslim people” who hated his success.
“I wish our persecutors would see that Christians are not evil creatures. We are human beings created by God, the same God that created them, although they do not know this yet,” she said.
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