On 13 January Model Town police station, Lahore, registered a blasphemy case under section 295 -A, B and C, Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which has a mandatory death penalty, against two young Christians, Haroon Ayub Masih and Salamat Mansha Masih. The complainant, Haroon Ahmad, said in his statement that while he was sitting in Model…
The Protection of the Rights of Religious Minorities (PRRM) Bill has been rejected but the Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony. Instead the committee said minorities enjoyed complete religious freedom in the country. At the meeting, chaired by JUI-F Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, it was said that minorities in the country…
A Christian staff nurse and gospel singer Tabita, 30, from Karachi, has been accused of committing blasphemy. On January 28, Tabita’s colleagues at Sobhraj Maternity Hospital, Karachi, where she has been working for the last nine years, accused her of committing blasphemy. Before then there had been no such complaints against her. According to reports…
A Christian father is begging the police to find his daughter who was kidnapped while he was at work. Rafique Masih of Rawalpindi said that on January 5, while he was at work, Muhammad Hamza, forcefully entered his home and kidnaped Mashal, 17, with the help of two of his companions. He said that at…
A Christian girl, Shiza, who recently escaped her Muslim kidnappers has released a video stating that she will burn herself if she doesn’t get justice. According to her parents, the police are not cooperating and are not willing to register a case to arrest the kidnappers, while the session court is not entertaining their petition.…
Two young Christian sisters, Abida 26, and Sajida 28, of Makhan Colony, near Lahore, were murdered last month after they continually refused to convert to Islam. The police have arrested two Muslim men, Mumtaz Khan and Muhammad Naeem, on suspicion of killing the women. Mushtaq Masih, Sajida’s husband said that both sisters were working in…
On Christmas Day, three young Christians, Azeem Mehmood, Abbas Gulshan and Irfan Saleem of Kotli Muhammad Sadique, Narrowal, were charged under section 295-A of the blasphemy law, for allegedly burning pages of the Holy Quran. Azeem Mehmood is sent to Jail while the other two were granted bail. There are about 40 Christian houses with…
A Christian, Imran Ghafoor Masih, has been acquitted from blasphemy charges after 11 years. Imran was arrested for blasphemy in 2009 after his neighbour falsely accused him of burning pages of the Holy Quran. In 2010, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. His appeal hearing had been postponed almost seventy times and the case has…
Pakistan has rejected America’s decision to designate it as one of the “countries of part¬ic¬ular concern” (CPC) under its International Religious Freedom Act. The Pakistani Foreign Office branded the decision an “arbitrary and selective assessment”. It raised questions about the credibility of the commission’s process, saying the designation – announced by Secre¬t¬a¬ry of State Mike…
A Christian woman, Sonia, 24, from Rawalpindi was fatally shot in the head by a Muslim man called Muhammad Shahzad for refusing to marry him. Sonia’s father Allah Rakha Masih, who works as a janitor, said that 13 years ago he moved to Rawalpindi with his two daughters, Sonia, and Nazish, 18, who worked as…
