Christian headteacher, Siddique Azam, who recently started working in a primary school in a village called Pernawa, district Kasur, was beaten and humiliated for being Christian.

On October 5 some Muslim colleagues taunted and tortured Siddique, and attacked him in his office. They asked him to resign from his post, telling him that if he wanted to continue doing he would have to follow their directions

They blackmailed him, saying that if they were absent he had to mark them as present.

But Siddique refused to listen to them, which infuriated them, and they started beating him and swearing him.

They taunted him, asking how a choora (sweeper) could become their senior. Choora is pejoratively used against Christians to evoke hatred.

Hearing this commotion other staff members rushed to his office and rescued Siddique.

Soon the police was called and three teachers who were beating Siddique were arrested. But the police sided with the Muslim teachers and didn’t register a case against them.

Siddique was appointed headteacher about three months ago, and since then the Muslim teachers had been continuously challenging his authority.

They even protested before the District Education Officer, demanding to know why a Christian was appointed over them. Being a head teacher, Saddique Azam had authority over three other schools in the area.

It is extremely worrying and m sad that this kind of incident occurs very often in remote areas where Muslims cannot tolerate their superiors being if Christian.

Unfortunately religious hatred continues to grow against Christians in Pakistan, but sadly the government has failed to control such incidents, punish those who are involved and to draft policy to avoid such incidences m in the future.