Tag: Punjab

Pakistan police deny Christian-Muslim tension after blasphemy allegation

May 19, 2016 Pakistan Barelvi, Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Islamic extremism, Mandi Bahauddin, Pakistan Muslim League, Punjab, Sunni Tehreek, Sweepers

Imran Masih’s house in the remote village of Chak 44, Punjab, Pakistan.World Watch Monitor Conflicting reports have emerged over Christian-Muslim tensions in a remote Pakistani village, after an illiterate Christian cleaner was accused of blasphemy. However, international media reports of a Muslim mob attacking the local Christian minority are . . . 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

Asia Bibi put in solitary cell

October 16, 2015 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Human rights, Islamabad, Multan, Pakistan, Prisons, Punjab, Salmaan Taseer

Jailed Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi was moved into solitary confinement in the Multan Women’s Prison last week, following “genuine threats” to her life by angry supporters of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws. “She could be killed by any inmate or even a prison guard, so we have to be careful,” a . . . Read More

Pakistani Christian bailed over ‘blasphemy’

October 14, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Kasur, Pakistan, Punjab

A Pakistani Christian accused of blasphemy has been released on bail, ahead of his next hearing on 20 October. Pervaiz Masih, an illiterate Christian labourer from the Punjab city of Kasur, was arrested on 2 September, after being accused by three colleagues of using “blasphemous words”. In Pakistan, a blasphemy . . . Read More

Pakistan: Qadri’s death sentence upheld

October 7, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistan, Punjab, Salmaan Taseer

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Mumtaz Qadri, a police bodyguard who killed the politician he was supposed to protect because he had criticised Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws. Salman Taseer, the Governor of the state of Punjab, was shot dead in January 2011. Qadri was convicted of . . . Read More

Pakistan: 23 unreported ‘blasphemy’ cases in 2 years

September 29, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Joseph Colony, Kasur, Pakistan, Pakistan Ulema Council, Punjab, Sheikhupura

Since 2013, the All Pakistan Ulema Council (APUC) has intervened in 23 incidents involving Christians accused of blasphemy, preventing them from becoming major incidents, according to Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, the APUC Chairman. (The APUC, a representative group of senior Muslim clerics, is very influential in Pakistani public life.) It . . . Read More

India’s Christians are under attack

September 11, 2015 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, Kandhamal, Madhya Pradesh, Naxalites, Odisha, Pune, Punjab, Raipur

Rahul Nayak, 25, the eldest son of Dhubaleswar and Bhubudi Nayak, a Christian couple shot dead in Odisha in July.Campaign Against Fabricated Cases The number of violent attacks on Christians and churches in India increased over the summer months. Below, World Watch Monitor lists 18 incidents from July, August and . . . Read More

Justice moves slowly in Pakistan

September 9, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Pakistan, Punjab, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has criticised the inaction of police in response to the November 2014 burning alive of a Christian couple, Shahzad Masih and Shama Bibi, in Punjab state. Five police officers were present Muslims descended upon the couple, who had been accused of desecrating a copy of the Quran. . . . 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

Pakistani Christian couple ‘still alive’ when thrown into kiln – coroner

December 23, 2014 Pakistan Bonded labourers, Gojra, Kasur, Punjab, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Christians at a church in Punjab, Pakistan; Sept. 2014 World Watch Monitor A lawyer for the state of Punjab, Pakistan has described the murder of a Christian couple by a mob of at least 500 to 600 as “brutal and barbaric”. The post-mortem report on their twin deaths (first . . . Read More

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