Tag: Balochistan

Christians matter least in Pakistani politics

July 5, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Balochistan, Blasphemy, Constitution, Elections, Imran Khan, Karachi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, Minorities, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Peoples Party, Patras Masih, PTI, Punjab, Sajid Masih, Shahbaz Bhatti, Sindh, Taliban, Youhanabad

As Pakistan prepares for elections later this month, the country’s minorities – particularly its Christians – have expressed dismay at their lack of representation among the candidates. Among the thousands of candidates contesting hundreds of provincial and national constituencies across the country, not a single Christian is nominated by any . . . Read More

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

April 16, 2018 Pakistan 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 . . . Read More

Asia Bibi central to trade deals, EU tells Pakistan

February 16, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Balochistan, Blasphemy, Education, Europe, Islamic extremism, Pakistan, Punjab, Rawalpindi, Sweepers

The EU’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Jan Figeľ, told Pakistani officials during a recent visit that the renewal of their export privileges to Europe depends on the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman on death row for blasphemy since 2010. “The EU countries have started . . . Read More

Pakistan: mourners bury 11 killed in Quetta church suicide attack, as 50 injured

December 18, 2017 Pakistan Balochistan, Pakistan, Quetta

Mourners attending the funeral of victims of the church bombing, Quetta, Pakistan (World Watch Monitor)

Pakistani Christian mourners today (Monday) are burying their dead only days before they should be celebrating Christ’s birth. Worshippers were lining up to take the Holy Communion when at least two men, armed and wearing suicide vests, attacked Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in western Pakistan’s restive city Quetta on Sunday . . . Read More

Pakistan: bomb attack on Christian colony kills young boy

December 6, 2017 Pakistan Balochistan, Islamic State, Pakistan, Taliban

Location where a mob burnt alive two men in angry reaction to twin church suicide bomb attacks in Youhanabad, March 2015. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A seven-year-old boy and two others were killed earlier this week during a hand grenade attack on the gates of a Christian colony in Chaman, south-western Pakistan, reports UCA News. Police named the boy as Lucky Saleem. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which came days after Taliban . . . Read More

As China goes global, its Christian missionaries go too

September 4, 2017 Balochistan, China, Islamic State, Lee Zingyang, Meng Lisi, Missionaries, Pakistan, Quetta, Zhejiang

A Chinese Christian holds a Bible standing outside the largest Chinese church in the world: the Three Self church which seats 5,000 people, in Hangzhou city. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

China’s drive to develop new trading routes to the West and beyond comes with an unintended and often overlooked by-product: Chinese Christian missionaries, who are putting the self-proclaimed atheistic country in a difficult spot, according to the BBC. The latest example is the story of two young Chinese who travelled . . . Read More

Secret ministry of Chinese missionaries in northern Iraq

July 19, 2017 Balochistan, China, Iraq, Islamic State, Lee Zingyang, Meng Lisi, Missionaries, Pakistan, Quetta

Cross on Dongguang Church against factory name. Shenyang, northeastern China. Shenyang is the capital and largest city of China’s northeast Liaoning Province. It was the site of the 17th-century Manchu capital Mukden, and the imposing Mukden Palace (Shenyang Imperial Palace) is a blend of Manchurian and Tibetan architectural styles. Mausoleums of Qing dynasty emperors can be found at Zhaoling Tomb, amid the pine forests and lakes of Beiling Park, and at Fuling Tomb in the city’s east. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Christian from China’s underground Church says he feels safer working as a missionary in northern Iraq than he does at home. Such a perspective might seem somewhat surprising: but it says more about returning stability to parts of northern Iraq than it does about possible dangers in China. The South . . . Read More

Pakistan expels South Korean for ‘illegal preaching’ after murder of Chinese ‘missionaries’

June 21, 2017 Pakistan Balochistan, China, Islamic State, Lee Zingyang, Meng Lisi, Quetta, South Korea

Pakistan has ordered a South Korean man to leave the country, accusing him of involvement in “illegal preaching activities”, after two of his students at an Urdu-language school were abducted and killed by the Islamic State group, which claimed they had been secretly preaching Christianity. “Investigations have revealed that [Juan . . . Read More

South Korea denies claims Chinese nationals killed in Pakistan were missionaries

June 15, 2017 Pakistan Balochistan, China, Islamic State, Lee Zingyang, Meng Lisi, Quetta, South Korea

A South Korean official says there is “no evidence” that two Chinese nationals, whose abduction and murder in Pakistan has been claimed by the Islamic State group, had secretly travelled there to work – with a South Korean – as Christian missionaries. Pakistan’s interior ministry had claimed Lee Zingyang, 24, . . . Read More

Two Pakistani Christian families escape blasphemy accusations

November 3, 2016 Pakistan Balochistan, Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Islamic extremism, Pakistan, Quetta, Sheikhupura, Sweepers

Two blasphemy cases lodged against Pakistani Christians accused of desecrating Islamic scriptures have been dropped in the past week. The cases related to alleged offences under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws and were registered in separate incidents, hundreds of miles apart. In both cases Christians were initially suspected of the crime . . . Read More

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