Tag: Lahore

Pakistan: Christians continue to face blasphemy convictions and violent attacks

August 22, 2022 Pakistan Blasphemy, Lahore, Minorities, Pakistan, Quetta

People participate in a motorbike rally ahead of country’s 75th Independence Day celebrations in Lahore on August 12, 2022.

While Pakistan celebrates 75 years of independence, the Christian minority continues to face discrimination, harassment and violence because of their faith. On 8 August, a Catholic man was killed and three teenagers injured when two gunmen on motorbikes opened fire in a Christian colony in the town of Mastung, 45kms . . . Read More

40 Pakistani Christians freed after almost 5 years in prison on trial for ‘terrorism’

January 30, 2020 Pakistan Bombing, Lahore, Taliban, Youhanabad

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)

Forty Pakistani Christians, who’ve been on trial for the murder of two men during a violent protest following Easter suicide attacks on two churches in Youhanabad – a majority-Christian area in Lahore – have been freed by the Lahore Anti-Terrorism Court. Two others, arrested with them, have already died, allegedly due . . . Read More

Two Pakistani Christian brothers sentenced to death for blasphemy

December 17, 2018 Pakistan Blasphemy, Lahore, Minorities, Pakistan, Punjab

Islamist activists carry placards against Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was recently released after spending eight years on death row for blasphemy, during a rally in Karachi on 21 November. (Photo: Getty Images)

A Pakistani court last week sentenced two Christian brothers to death for blasphemy. Since their arrest in 2014, Qaisar and Amoon Ayub had been held in District Jail Jhelum, in Punjab province, 200 km north of Lahore, for allegedly posting “disrespectful material” on their website, according to AsiaNews. For security . . . Read More

Lawyer: Asia Bibi is on a plane, destination unknown

November 7, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Quran, Salmaan Taseer, Sheikhupura

Asia Bibi is finally free, almost one decade after she was first imprisoned. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The lawyer for Aasiya Noreen said 7 Nov. that the Pakistani Christian, whose blasphemy conviction was overturned 31 Oct., was on a plane, destination undisclosed. “No one knows where she will land,” the lawyer, Saiful Malook, told Agence France-Presse in a message via Twitter posted at 7:40 p.m. GMT: In his . . . Read More

‘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

Pakistan PM appeals for calm after Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy

October 31, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Constitution, Imran Khan, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Pakistan, Pakistan Peoples Party, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab, Quran, Sharia, Sindh, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, this evening urged the nation not to let a fraction of people incite them to take the law into their own hands over the decision of the Supreme Court to release a Christian woman who had been facing the death penalty for blasphemy. The security . . . Read More

‘A victory for Pakistan and millions of its marginalised people’ – son of governor who was killed for defence of innocent Asia Bibi

October 31, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Minorities, Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistan, Salmaan Taseer, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Shahbaz Taseer. (Photo: beenasarwar.com)

Demonstrations were held in several cities in Pakistan following the acquittal of Asia Bibi of blasphemy charges by the Supreme Court earlier today (31 October). However, the numbers were in the hundreds rather than the thousands that might have been anticipated. And the son of the ex-Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, . . . Read More

Pakistani mother Asia Bibi wins appeal against death sentence for blasphemy

October 31, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Imran Khan, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Minorities, Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistan, Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman on death row for blasphemy since 2010, has won her final appeal. She is expected to be freed from prison soon, but there are still fears for her personal safety, as many in the country still believe that she should die. Her case has divided . . . Read More

Blasphemers should be put to death, says one Pakistan party as elections near

July 11, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Elections, Islamabad, Lahore, Minorities, Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistan, Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Ahead of Pakistan’s general elections later this month, the newly established Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party is gaining traction with its anti-blasphemy agenda, Al-Jazeera reports. The party calls for blasphemers against Islam to be put to death and for those who kill alleged blasphemers to be celebrated. Its election posters often . . . 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

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