Tag: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

‘Untouchable’ caste identity haunts Pakistani Christians like Asia Bibi

November 1, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Caste, Gilgit, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, Minorities, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, Peshawar, Punjab, Quetta, Sindh, Sweepers

Asia Bibi was on death row for blasphemy, after offering drinking water which she, as a Christian, was considered to have made “unclean” by her touch. She got into an argument over this. Many Pakistani Christians – who are about 2% of the population – are children of converts to . . . Read More

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

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

May 14, 2018 Pakistan 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 . . . Read More

Pakistan releases IS-linked woman who planned Easter suicide attack

May 10, 2017 Pakistan Islamic State, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, Mardan, Multan, Pakistan, Youhanabad

Pakistani Christians have expressed dismay at a decision by the authorities to quietly release a woman who was planning to carry out a suicide bomb attack in a church in the city of Lahore over the Easter weekend. Pakistan’s army chief spokesman, Major-General Asif Ghafoor, said that Noreen Leghari, 19, . . . Read More

Pakistan: One killed after attack on Christian colony

September 2, 2016 Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mardan, Peshawar, Taliban, Warsak Dam

One person was killed and two policemen injured after an early morning attack on a Christian colony near the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar. Four suicide bombers carrying automatic weapons were waiting at the gate to the colony, which was locked every night. When Samuel Masih, 55, opened the gate on his . . . Read More

Report: Pakistan school textbooks riddled with religious ‘hate material’

August 25, 2016 Pakistan Balochistan, Education, Islamic extremism, Jamaat-e-Islami, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Taliban

A young girl does her school work in Karachi, Pakistan, in a 2011 photo.UN Photo / John Isaac / Flickr CC A report by Pakistan’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) says the government has failed to keep its promise to eradicate religious “hate material” from textbooks used . . . Read More

UPDATE: A ‘shaming’ of Christians in Pakistan schoolbooks

April 12, 2016 Pakistan Balochistan, Education, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Madrassas, Punjab, Sindh, USA

Note: This report has been updated to include remarks made at the USCIRF announcement 12 April in Washington, D.C. The news Textbooks in Pakistan’s public schools have become more antagonistic toward Christians and other religious minorities in the past five years, a new report says. “The trend toward a more biased . . . Read More

After ‘Charlie’: latest incident of Pakistani Christians targeted by Muslim anger

February 21, 2015 Pakistan Charlie Hebdo, Jamaat-e-Islami, Karachi, Kasur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Madrassas, Mardan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Multan, Pakistan, Pashtun, Peshawar, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Taliban

Protests over their latest Charlie Hebdo cartoon depiction a weeping Prophet Mohammed holding a sign saying, 'I am Charlie', led to violence in the West African nation of Niger over the weekend January 18, 2015.

World Watch Monitor

The publication of Charlie Hebdo’s ‘memorial edition’, with its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad crying, sparked – in one or two countries – a violent backlash against Westerners in general and Christians in particular. It was notable in Niger, where 70 churches were destroyed, Algeria where police and protestors clashed, . . . Read More

Pakistan haunted by school massacre

December 17, 2014 Pakistan All Saints Church, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Peshawar, Taliban, Terrorism

The attack on a military school in Peshawar, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban as a response to an army offensive in the Khyber area and North Waziristan regions, is the deadliest in Pakistan’s recent memory. Its toll surpasses the September 2013 massacre in the same city at All Saints Anglican Church by . . . Read More

After the bombs

October 2, 2013 Pakistan All Saints Church, Blasphemy, Karachi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Peshawar, Taliban

On Sept. 22, two bombs exploded at All Saints Anglican Church in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan. More than 80 people were killed, making it the deadliest attack ever on Pakistan’s Christians. In the days since, protests have been staged across the country. Condemnations . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye