CONCERNS RISE AS NEW PAKISTAN CHURCH ATTACKED

ISLAMABAD — A rights group raised concern Monday that vigilante attacks were increasing against religious minorities in Pakistan when another church was damaged, weeks after an angry mob killed seven Christians.
About 100 people, mostly youths, attacked a Catholic church in the Sambrial district near the Indian border on Friday after accusing a young Christian man of desecrating the Koran, police said.
"They set fire to prayer mats and some religious books but the timely arrival of police prevented the situation from taking an ugly turn," local police official Rafaqat Ali told AFP by telephone.
"The church suffered no major damage," he said. Police arrested a man accused of "snatching and desecrating" a copy of the Koran from a girl while she was going to school, he added.
Pakistan's Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti visited the area Monday and vowed that the government would "reconstruct" the church.
"No one from minorities can even think of desecration of the holy Koran," he said in a statement released in English.
"Some people want to destabilise the country by doing such things, but the government will not allow anyone to play with the lives and properties of the minorities," he added.
Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law carries the death penalty although no one has ever been sent to the gallows for the crime.
Human rights activists say the legislation is often exploited for personal enmity and encourages Islamist extremism and have demanded it be repealed.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed concern Monday over the "increasing frequency of violent attacks on religious minorities" and demanded the government prosecute those responsible and act to prevent such violence.
"The Commission has been warning the government of the growing intolerance of religious minorities' rights and pointing towards the increasing frequency of vigilante actions against them.
"It is unfortunate that our fears of recurrence of such violence again proved to be true in Sambarial," said Pakistan's leading rights group.
The organisation slammed the government's offers of financial compensation and encouraging local reconciliation as "insufficient".
"The Commission would emphasise that another attack targeting the minorities is a question of when, not if, unless the government acknowledges in a meaningful manner the threat extremism and intolerance pose," it said.
"Effective prosecution would serve as a deterrent to future attacks, while a lack thereof would encourage impunity," it added.
Last month, an angry mob of Muslims torched 40 houses and a church in the remote village of Gojra in Pakistan's central Punjab province.

PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS SHUT SCHOOLS TO MOURN KILLINGS

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani Christians have closed their schools and colleges across the country for three days starting Monday to mourn and protest the killings of eight of their religious brethren, leaders of the minority community said.

Hundreds of Muslims, apparently spurred by a banned Islamist group, stormed a Christian neighborhood in the eastern city of Gojra on Saturday, burning dozens of houses after reports surfaced that some Christians had desecrated a Quran.

Six Christians died in flames, while two were killed by gunshots. Christian leaders and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said an initial probe had debunked the Quran defilement rumor.

"We are closing the schools to show our anger and concern," Bishop Sadiq Daniel told The Associated Press, noting the move was a peaceful tactic. "We want the government to bring all perpetrators of the crime to justice."

Paramilitary troops and other security forces were patrolling the city Monday. Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Pakistan's president, said a judicial panel will probe the incident.

Christians and Muslims usually live together peacefully in Pakistan, which is overwhelmingly Muslim.

However, Christians and other minority religious groups are vulnerable to discriminatory laws, including an edict against blasphemy that carries the death penalty for derogatory remarks or any other action against Islam, the Quran or the Prophet Muhammad.

Anyone can make an accusation under the law, and it is often used to settle personal scores and rivalries.

The clashes between the Muslims and Christians began Thursday following reports that a copy of the Quran had been defiled. Hundreds of Muslim protesters set fire to several Christians' houses in the first two days, but the violence reached its peak Saturday.

Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti said the attackers belonged to a banned Sunni Muslim extremist group, Sipah-e-Sahaba.

Officials have tried to calm the situation.

"This is not the work of Muslims. A group of extremists have exploited the situation," Sanaullah told a group of Christians after the funeral prayers for the deceased Sunday night. "I also want to appeal to both the communities to remain calm. Please do not become a tool in the hands of some miscreants."

Gojra is in Pakistan's Faisalabad region, which is dotted with hard-line Islamist schools.

Sipah-e-Sahaba also has an offshoot group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, that is linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Jhangvi is believed involved in the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and two failed assassination attempts against former President Pervez Musharraf, as well as scores of other terrorist strikes.

Also Monday, Pakistan's Supreme Court adjourned a hearing on whether to detain a man suspected to have played a role in last year's attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai. The court did not set a date for another hearing, leaving Hafiz Saeed free.

Saeed helped set up Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned extremist group India says plotted the attacks that killed 166 people. He was put under house arrest for a few months this year, but freed in June after a court decided there was not enough evidence against him.

The government appealed that ruling while pressing India for more evidence. Monday's adjournment came because the provincial government chief prosecutor has resigned and no one was there in his place, said Shah Khawar, a government lawyer.

MANY CHRISTIAN CHILDREN AND WOMAN BURNT TO DEATH IN PAKISTAN

Many Christians are reportedly burnt to death when a Muslim mob sets on fire dozens of Christian homes on Thursday night for harbouring a Christian boy whom they accused had torn down pages of Quran, the Muslim Holy Book.
“Muslim attackers set on fire about 40 Christian homes in Korian village, Toba Tek district in Punjab Province on Thursday night, many including Christian children and women are feared burnt to death,” Pakistan Christian Post reported.

Sources in Toba Tek district, which is also the district headquarter told Pakistan Christian Post (PCP) that on Sunday night Muslims were searching for one boy in a a large gathering of a Christian wedding ceremony; they accused that the boy accused had burnt down pages of the Koran (Quran) – the Holy Book of Muslims.

Though the Christian and Muslim elders in the village defused the tension on clarification of the Christian youth that he had not burnt pages of the Quran, the Muslim mob came back on Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. calling upon the Korian Muslims from Mosque’s loudspeakers asking them to gather and teach a lesson to “infidel Christians” who they said are protecting a boy accused of blasphemy on burning the holy pages of Quran.

The sources said the nearby villages also made same announcements from mosques and Muslims gathered before homes of Christians in large numbers.

Shouting “Allah Oh Akbar,” – Allah is great - “Kill infidels” and the Muslim mob started setting on fire homes of Christians. As it was night, the Christian children, women and men with fear locked their doors to hide inside and many are feared death inside their homes, sourced told PCP.

PCP said when news of attack on Christians came to the District Police Officer in Toba Tek, he ordered deployment of police and Fire Brigade but Muslim mob blocked roads by lying on road.

It is second incident of burning homes of Christian in Punjab province when Muslim mob on accusation of blasphemy attacked village Bahamin Wala in district Kasur on July 1, 2009;, at that time no lost of lives was reported unlike this time.

According to Pakistan electronic media, Chief Minister of Punjab has ordered District Police Officer of Toba Tek to reach to village Korian and take control of situation but still Faisalabad-Gojra Road is blocked by Muslim mob who are lying on road to block any help to reach village Korian where homes of Christians are burning.

The teams of Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), and Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan (SLMP), Christian advocacy groups have left Lahore for Toba Tek after call from Christians in Gojra who are also hiding in homes on fear of attack by Muslims, the report said.

CLAAS Director Joseph Francis and SLMP Chief Sohail Johnson told PCP that they are on the way to Gojra to reach Village Korian and it will take 4 hours because of bad weather.

PCP reported that there is widespread fear among Christians in Punjab province on their safety and security from an attacks of extremist Muslims and misuse of blasphemy laws.

PCP said the details are awaited of this barbaric incident of burning of children, women and men in homes by Muslims as the teams of SLMP and CLASS approach the scene of the incident. The two teams are expected to give more detail on the incident.

CHRISTIAN MURDERED FOR DRINKING TEA FROM A MUSLIM CUP IN PAKISTAN

International Christian Concern (www.persecution.org) has learned that radical Muslims running a tea stall beat a Christian man to death for using a cup designated for Muslims on May 9.

The young man, Ishtiaq Masih, had ordered tea at a roadside stall in Machharkay village, Punjab, Pakistan, after his bus made a rest stop. When Ishtiaq went to pay for his tea, the owner noticed that he was wearing a necklace with a cross and grabbed him, calling for his employees to bring anything available to beat him for violating a sign posted on the stall warning non-Muslims to declare their religion before being served. Ishtiaq had not noticed the warning sign before ordering his tea.

The owner and 14 of his employees beat Ishtiaq with stones, iron rods and clubs, and stabbed him multiple times with kitchen knives as Ishtiaq pleaded for mercy.The other bus passengers and other passers-by finally intervened and took Ishtiaq to the Rural Health Center in the village.

The doctor who took Ishtiaq's case told ICC that Ishtiaq had died due to excessive internal and external bleeding, a fractured skull, and brain injuries.Makah Tea Stall is located on the Sukheki-Lahore highway and is owned by Mubarak Ali, a 42-year-old radical Muslim.

ICC's correspondent visited the tea stall and observed that a large red warning sign with a death's head symbol was posted which read, "All non-Muslims should introduce their faith prior to ordering tea. This tea stall serves Muslims only." The warning also threatened anyone who violated the rule with "dire consequences."

A neighboring shopkeeper told ICC on condition of anonymity that all Ali's employees are former students of radical Muslim madrassas (seminaries). Ishtiaq's family said that they immediately reported the incident to the police and filed a case against Ali. However, the murderers are still freely operating the tea stall.

When ICC asked the Pindi Bhatian Saddar police station about the murder, the police chief said that investigations were underway and they are treating it as a faith-based murder by biased Muslims. When asked about Ali's warning sign, police chief Muhammad Iftikhar Bajwa claimed that he could not take it down. However, the constitution of Pakistan explicitly prohibits such discrimination.

PAKISTAN : MUSLIM GUY FORCES 12 YEAR OLD GIRL TO CONVERT AND MARRY HIM

LAHORE, Pakistan – The Christian mother of a 12-year-old girl in Punjab Province who was kidnapped, coerced into converting to Islam and forcibly married to a 37-year-old Muslim hopes to recover her daughter at a court hearing next week.
The reaction of Pakistani law enforcement authorities to Sajida Masih’s complaint so far – ridiculing her and asserting that there is nothing she can do because her daughter is now a Muslim – does not encourage her hopes of recovering her daughter Huma at next Thursday’s (June 11) hearing.
Masih said that Muhammad Imran abducted Huma at gunpoint on Feb. 23 from Hanif Kot village in Gujranwala district, forcibly converted her and then married her. Imran has since disappeared along with his first wife, three children and new child-bride.
Masih, who worked alongside Imran as a farmhand, said the kidnapping occurred on her son’s wedding day. Masih said that when she sent Huma and the child’s aunt out of their home to see if transportation had arrived for the wedding party, Imran – who had helped in preparing for the ceremony – was waiting and told her to sit on his motorbike.
Huma did not understand and, with her concerned aunt tightly holding her hand, she refused.
Masih’s attorney, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said Imran took out a pistol and told Huma that he would shoot her as well as her parents if she did not obey; he also pointed the weapon at her aunt and said that he would kill her. Huma got onto the bike with him; her family has not seen her since.
Masih immediately ran to the owner of the farm where she and Imran work, Khan Buhadur, who told her to first finish the wedding and then see him in the evening. Masih’s attorney said that when she and relatives went to Buhadur after the ceremony, however, he said only that Imran had fled with his family along with the girl, and that he did not know where they were.
Suspecting that Buhadur was complicit in the kidnapping, Masih went to Sadar police station in Gujranwala. Police officers first ridiculed her, the attorney said, and then told her to go back to Buhadur because “only he could do something.” For several days officers and Buhadur shuttled her back and forth between them.
Unable to get police to register the case, Masih submitted a report with the help of a lawyer and took it to the police station, where officers consigned it to the dustbin.
Three days after the kidnapping, police finally registered a First Information Report (FIR) on Feb. 26 – but changed the age of the kidnapped girl from 12, as her mother reported, to 16. Moreover, Investigating Officer Niaz Khan told Masih that the FIR was useless since she was too poor to hire a lawyer, and that she should try to reach an out-of-court agreement with Buhadur – implying that he knew of the child’s whereabouts.
The Masih family learned from a friend of Imran, identified only as Javed, that Huma had converted to Islam and had married the fugitive father of three. Javed further said that Imran had told him police would do nothing as he had paid them 50,000 rupees (US$620).
The family subsequently received a court notice, the attorney said, stating that Imran had requested nullification of the FIR on Huma’s abduction, claiming she was an “adult” and had “willfully” converted to Islam and married him.
According to Huma’s birth certificate, issued by St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Gujranwala, she was born on Oct. 22, 1996. The attorney said that Imran had submitted a fake birth certificate stating she was born on Dec. 23, 1990, which would make her 18 years old. The legal marriage age for girls in Pakistan is 16.
Only then did Masih obtain the services of the lawyer now handling the case, who is supported by the American Center for Law & Justice.
A hearing on the case had been scheduled for May 6, but because of a change of judge a new date was set for June 11. Unwilling to wait, the family and their lawyer went with a court bailiff to a factory owned by Buhadur in Gujranwala on May 14, hoping to get help in recovering Huma, but Buhadur did not cooperate.
Buhadur had been demanding that Masih pay him 100,000 rupees (US$1,240) that she had supposedly borrowed from him, but this demand only surfaced after the kidnapping – an implied attempt to extort money from her in exchange for information on the whereabouts of her daughter, according to the lawyer. Buhadur withdrew this pressure on Masih after the visit from the court bailiff and efforts by the attorney.
At a meeting of villagers on May 16 at the Sadar police station, Buhadur said that Imran owed him money and that he would inform officers if he learned anything of his whereabouts.
Another land owner, Karamat Ali Saroyya, subsequently called Masih saying that Huma was in Muridke, near Lahore, but when Masih and her lawyer set out again and met with Muridke police, they were unable to find her.
Saroyya later demanded that Masih work his fields for one year in order to get her daughter back.
Masih’s lawyer and other legal representatives said police and officials at the Municipal Corporation’s office, which keeps birth and death records, have been reluctant to help, saying that Huma had converted and that therefore there was no reason that she should be returned to non-Muslim parents.

PAKISTAN: PASTORS ARRESTED FOR USE OF LOUD SPEAKERS,POLICE CLAIM AMPLIFIED EASTER SUNDAY SERVICE DEFAMED ISLAM

ISTANBUL– Nine pastors from two neighboring villages in Pakistan could face prison time for using loudspeakers to broadcast prayers and sermons from their churches on Easter Sunday.
Martinpur and Youngsnabad, 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Lahore, are majority Christian villages. The nine pastors who lead congregations there say that local Muslim security forces have twisted the law to solicit a bribe.
Police arrested and detained Hafeez Gill, Fahim John, Maksud Ulkaq, and a catechist from the Catholic Church in Youngsnabad identified only as Saqab at 10 a.m. on May 16. While en route to the police station, the officers told them they would be released if they offered a bribe, according to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). The pastors refused and were detained, but following a public outcry from their parishioners they were released at 2:30 p.m.
Reports indicate the arrest was premeditated. A leader in the village council invited the pastors to his house for a meeting, but when they arrived in the morning local police were waiting for them.
They were taken to the police station, where Station House Officer Mirza Latif showed them two First Instance Reports (FIR) registered on May 11 claiming they had misused their speakers. The FIRs, however, state the pastors misused the speakers on Easter Sunday, which happened nearly a month earlier.
The FIRs accused the pastors of misusing their loudspeakers under Section 3/4 of the Amplifier Act. Their attorney said the reasons for their arrest were both religiously and financially motivated.
Police claimed that the church leaders had used their loudspeakers to amplify messages defaming Islam. The FIRs, however, make no mention of the content of their remarks.
“The police wanted to cause humiliation to the pastors and were also asking for money,” said CLAAS attorney Akhbar Durrani.
The case was registered by a special branch of local police forces charging the four Youngsnabad pastors. On the same day, they filed charges against the five pastors in Martinpur: Shahazad Kamarul-Zaman, Mumbarab Kuhram, Hanuk Daniel, Amar Sohail, and a fifth pastor unnamed in the police report.
Nasir Bahatti, president of the Youth Welfare Association in Youngsnabad, a Christian social organization, said the church had permission to amplify the service and that the arrests were religiously motivated.
“There is no reason to ban the loudspeaker,” he said. “They are banning our worship and prayer. But we have permission [to use them] on particular days such as Christmas and Easter.”
If the FIRs are not withdrawn, the pastors will go to court over the alleged loudspeaker violation. Police released them from jail on May 16 under the condition that they obtain bail at an upcoming hearing.
The church loudspeakers broadcasted the church prayers and sermon for villagers unable to attend the service, as is custom in some Christian villages. Pakistani law limits the use of loudspeakers in Christian worship services to a specific time allotment (and usually to villages and towns with a small Muslim population), but these restrictions were not enforced in the almost-entirely Christian villages of Youngsnabad and Martinpur.
Few such restrictions, however, are placed on Pakistani mosques. The five daily calls to prayer, Friday sermons, and Quran recitations on Islamic holidays are frequently amplified on loudspeakers. The double standard follows a traditional Islamic dictum in which church bells were not allowed to ring in areas under Islamic rule.
“The Muslims in this nation can worship according to their prayer method, so why can’t we if we are all given equal rights?” Bahatti said.
The standard of living is relatively high in these villages due to a well-educated population. There are longstanding missionary schools in the villages, and much of the population has lived abroad. English missionaries founded Youngsnabad and Martinpur 120 years ago during British colonial occupation.
Some rights groups worry that the harassment of Pakistani Christians in villages such as Martinpur and Youngsnabad could mean deteriorating conditions for religious minorities in areas once considered secure.
CLAAS reported that vandals completely ransacked a church in Bannu Cantt, in the North West Frontier Province, on May 12. They destroyed the altar, burned Bibles, and broke pews. Although the city is located in a province that borders Afghanistan, where Taliban rebels have been active, it was thought to be a relatively secure area, according to the report.
Pakistan remains in turmoil as the military moves into Swat Valley to uproot the Taliban, which has established Islamic law (sharia) in the embattled area. An estimated 2 million Pakistanis have become refugees by fleeing the area after a government evacuation order.