Pakistan

Some of the world’s most widely-known cases of anti-Christian pressure and violence have arisen in Pakistan, a country whose founder promoted religious freedom. Asia Bibi’s case prompted international condemnation of Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws but there are still dozens of Christians and others on death row for blasphemy. Meanwhile, several churches and Christian colonies have been attacked by Islamists in recent years, leading to the loss of many lives. Although Christians are around 2% of the population, they make up about 80% of the workforce dealing with waste management (sewerage and street-cleaning). World Watch Monitor’s journalism brought changes in employment legislation in Punjab for such ‘sweepers’ in September 2015. `

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Landmark judgment on Pakistani religious minorities yet to be honoured by the state

May 14, 2018 All Saints Church, Blasphemy, Education, Human rights, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Minorities, Pakistan, Peshawar, Religious freedom

When a bomber killed 127 people at a Pakistan church, the country’s Supreme Court issued a list of instructions to the government to protect religious minorities. Four years later, the government has yet to follow most of them. As with the religious freedom guaranteed in Pakistan’s constitution, the government’s lacklustre […]

Pakistan: bereaved parents accept compensation but suspect walks free

May 10, 2018 Asia Bibi, Burewala, Caste, Diyat, Pakistan, Punjab, Sharoon Masih, Vehari

Family of Sharoon Masih (World Watch Monitor)

The family of a Christian boy beaten to death on his second day in secondary school have accepted the offer of compensation from the family of the accused. The Islamic concept of paying diyat (blood money) to the victim’s family allowed the suspect to walk free. Sharoon Masih, 17, was […]

Gunman shoots Pakistan minister over blasphemy law

May 9, 2018 Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Catholics, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Mumtaz Qadri, Narowal, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Pakistan’s interior minister, who has championed the country’s minority communities, has survived an assassination attempt by a gunman protesting against the country’s blasphemy laws. Ahsan Iqbal was shot in the arm before police overpowered his suspected attacker, 21-year-old Abid Hussain, the BBC reported. Iqbal was shot on Sunday (6 May) […]

Pakistan’s top judge says he’ll hear Asia Bibi’s appeal personally – and ‘soon’

April 26, 2018 Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Catholics, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Minorities, Multan, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Religious freedom

Aasiya Noreen, a Pakistani Christian woman, has been on death row for over eight years for alleged blasphemy. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Pakistan’s chief justice says he will decide, “soon,” the fate of Aasiya Noreen, a Christian woman whose 2009 conviction on blasphemy charges has fixated world attention on the country’s treatment of religious minorities. Chief Justice Saqib Nisar told Noreen’s lawyer, Saif-ul-Malook, on 21 April that he would hear the woman’s […]

Pakistan: family of Christian boy killed by police compensated in ‘rare victory’

April 26, 2018 Diyat, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Pakistan, Police, Punjab, Sheikhupura

The family of a Christian boy who was killed while in police custody has been compensated for more than the standard amount paid out in similar cases. A lawyer working for the family called the outcome a “rare victory”. Arsalan Masih, a 16-year-old student from Sheikhupura in the north-eastern Punjab […]

Pakistani Christian dies after being set on fire by Muslim in alleged dispute over who should convert

April 23, 2018 Marriage, Pakistan, Punjab, Sialkot, Women

A Christian woman from north-eastern Pakistan has died from her injuries after being set on fire by a Muslim man, who claims it was an accident and followed a discussion about which of them should convert if they were to marry. Asma Yaqoob, 24, died in a Lahore hospital yesterday […]

Pakistan: Islamic university opens Christian chapel – a first

April 20, 2018 Education, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Minorities, Pakistan, Punjab, Rawalpindi, Religious freedom, Sharoon Masih, Vehari

Religious minorities in Pakistan have to declare their religion when applying for identification papers or for government jobs making them "even more vulnerable" activists say. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

For the first time ever, an Islamic university in Pakistan has opened a Christian chapel. The church of St. Mary is located in the atrium of the Agriculture University of Faisalabad, Pakistan’s third-most populous city, and was built following an initiative of the city’s former vicar general, reports AsiaNews. The church contributed […]

‘Extremists given a free hand’ – Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

April 16, 2018 Asia Bibi, Balochistan, Blasphemy, Human rights, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minorities, Nadeem Masih, Pakistan, Patras Masih, Quetta, Religious freedom, Sajid Masih, Sawan Masih, UN

Pakistani Christians experience an increase in violence such as a suicide attack on the Bethel Methodist Church in Quetta in December last year that killed more than ten and injured dozens of people. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Two Pakistani Christians were killed and at least three injured in a drive-by shooting on Sunday (15 April) in Essa Nagri, a Christian-majority area in Quetta, capital of the impoverished Balochistan province in the southwest. The victims, aged 19 and 28, had just left a church service when they were […]

Pakistan Christians process in Lahore, month after mob attack

March 27, 2018 Blasphemy, Lahore, Pakistan, Patras Masih, Sajid Masih, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, Torture

A girl is preparing to walk in the Palm Sunday procession through her Christian neighbourhood in Lahore, Pakistan. (Photo taken from UCAN video)

Some 200 Pakistani Christians who fled their neighbourhood in a Lahore suburb over a month ago, after mobs of Muslims demanded the arrest of a Christian for alleged blasphemy, were back in the streets on 25 March for a Palm Sunday procession, as in a video by Catholic news agency […]

Pakistan court acquits 20 in case of Christian couple burnt alive

March 26, 2018 Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Lahore, Minorities, Pakistan, Punjab, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Relatives of Shahzad Masih and his five-months-pregnant wife Shama Bibi are oraying at the site where the couple was killed for their “blasphemous” act on 4 November 2014. (Photo: Getty Images/AFP/Arif Ali)

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore, Pakistan, on Saturday (24 March) acquitted 20 men suspected of involvement in the murder of a Christian couple burnt alive at the kiln where they worked in November 2014 – after it was alleged that they had set fire to some pages from a Quran. […]

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