LAHORE, Pakistan, October 23 (CDN) — Two Christians in Gojra, Pakistan who allegedly fired warning shots as an Islamist mob approached that burned seven Christians to death on Aug. 1 told Compass they were tortured after police arrested them. Only one of hundreds of Muslim ....
LAHORE, Pakistan, September 17 (CDN) — At a funeral for a Christian man allegedly tortured to death while in custody on a spurious charge of blaspheming the Quran, police in Sialkot, Pakistan yesterday fired on mourners trying to move the coffin to another site. Area Christians ....
LAHORE, Pakistan, September 8 (CDN) — In the wake of Islamists setting fires that killed at least seven people in Punjab Province last month, the latest of several attempts to provoke further attacks on Christians took place in a village on Friday (Sept. 4) when unidentified men tore ....
GOJRA, Pakistan, August 5 (CDN) — A standoff here between Pakistani officials and Christians protesting the government’s reluctance to prosecute a murderous Islamic assault ended with officials finally consenting to file a complaint against key Muslim clerics and security ....
GOJRA, Pakistan, August 1 (CDN) — Islamic extremists today set ablaze more than 50 houses and a church in this town in northeastern Pakistan following an accusation of “blasphemy” of the Quran, leaving at least 14 Christians dead, sources said. The dead include women and ....
LOS ANGELES, July 23 (CDN) — Pakistani minority rights defender Joseph Francis has been unjustly jailed by Islamists and others who oppose his work on behalf of Christians, according to the legal aid organization Francis directs. An Islamist in Punjab Province who said he had ....
LAHORE, Pakistan, July 14 (CDN) — Well-known Pakistani minority rights activist Joseph Francis and two others were jailed on Sunday (July 12) for forged documents in connection with false charges of assaulting a woman who visited his office in 2006, their lawyers said. Francis, ....
LAHORE, Pakistan, July 3 (CDN) — After a Muslim beat a Christian field worker for asking him to let him pass on Tuesday (June 30), a cleric in a village near here used a mosque loudspeaker to announce a call to attack Christians that resulted in more than 500 Muslims ransacking and ....
LAHORE, Pakistan, June 23 (CDN) — A 37-year-old Christian is languishing in a Sialkot jail after police broke his backbone because his father was preaching Christ, according to a local advocacy group.Arshad Masih had been in a hospital – chained to his bed on false robbery charges – ....
LAHORE, Pakistan, June 12 (CDN) — In a growing culture of violence here, a traffic incident in Punjab Province this month led to Muslim assailants later mounting an attack on the home of a Christian pastor they have increasingly resented for his evangelism and justice ministries. ....
LAHORE, Pakistan, June 4 (CDN) — 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 ....
ISTANBUL, May 29 (CDN) — Radical Pakistani Muslims in a town outside of Lahore this month overran a courtroom in hopes of swaying a judge in a “blasphemy” case against a Christian couple, and a member of the prosecution later threatened to kill the wife. Some 50 molvis ....
ISTANBUL, May 27 (CDN) — 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 ....
ISTANBUL, May 13 (CDN) — Pakistani Christians in Swat Valley are caught between the Taliban and Pakistan’s military as it assaults the stronghold where sharia (Islamic law) rules. Nearly 15,000 troops have been deployed in the picturesque Swat Valley in Pakistan’s ....
ISTANBUL, May 5 (CDN) — A Pakistani Christian charged with abetting blasphemy against Islam was denied bail for his own safety last week after an Islamist lawyer allegedly threatened his life in a court hearing. Hector Aleem, 51, remains in Adiyala Jail in Rawalpindi, near ....
ISTANBUL, April 26 (CDN) — As Taliban control hits pockets of Pakistan and threatens the nation’s stability, Christians worry their province could be the next to fall under Islamic law. Violence on Tuesday night and Wednesday (April 21-22) near the port city of Karachi ....
ISTANBUL, April 20 (CDN) — After more than two years in a Pakistani jail, two elderly Christian men convicted of “blasphemy” against the Quran were acquitted on Thursday (April 16) when a high court in Lahore overturned their 10-year sentence. James Masih, 67, and Buta Masih, ....
ISTANBUL, April 20 (CDN) — After more than two years in a Pakistani jail, two elderly Christian men convicted of “blasphemy” against the Quran were acquitted on Thursday (April 16) when a high court in Lahore overturned their 10-year sentence. James Masih, 67, and Buta Masih, ....
ISTANBUL, April 9 (CDN) — Police have declared three Pakistani men innocent of raping a 13-year-old Christian girl despite eyewitness accounts and medical evidence indicating their guilt. At a hearing in Nankana Sahib district court on April 3, police from the Pakistani town ....
ISTANBUL, March 26 (CDN) — Just over a month since Pakistan’s fertile Swat Valley turned into a Taliban stronghold where sharia (Islamic law) rules, the fate of the remaining Christians in the area is uncertain. Last month, in an effort to end a bloody two-year battle, the ....
CHICAGO, March 13 (CDN) — A Pakistani investigator has ruled out a charge against a Christian for “blaspheming Islam” but retained another for abetting blasphemy, and advocates worry the stigma of the charges could make him a target for local Islamists. Hector Aleem, 51, ....
NEW DELHI, March 10 (CDN) — In an effort to stop conversions to Christianity in the eastern state of Bihar, a 25-year-old ailing man on Sunday (March 8) exploded a crude bomb in a church and shot the pastor. Police Inspector Hari Krishna Mandal told Compass that the attacker, ....
ISTANBUL, March 9 (CDN) — Gun and club attacks on a Presbyterian church and neighboring homes in the predominantly Christian area of a village in Pakistan last week killed one woman and left 16 people wounded.Seeking revenge for a robbery complaint that a Christian filed ....
ISTANBUL, February 27 (CDN) — After months of legal deadlock, lawyers in Pakistan said they have new hope they can restore to her family a 13-year-old Christian girl who was kidnapped and forced to marry a Muslim. Saba Masih might be returned to her family, the lawyers ....
ISTANBUL, February 5 (CDN) — More than 100 protestors last week surrounded a Pakistani courthouse and chanted death threats against a Punjabi Christian said to be framed for sending a “blasphemous” text message on his cell phone. Rawalpindi police arrested Hector Aleem, 51, on ....
ISTANBUL, January 23 (CDN) — Five Christians charged with “blasphemy” against Islam during April 2007 religious holidays were released on Monday (Jan. 19) after reconciliation meetings between Christian and Islamic leaders – the first verdict to have resulted from such efforts ....
ISTANBUL, January 19 (CDN) — The ordeal of two teenage Christian sisters in Pakistan is over after Muslims allegedly abducted and raped them and forced them to convert to Islam, but they fear a future of societal rejection. Parvisha Masih, 18, and Sanam Masih, 14, said three ....
