Tag: Caste

Pakistan: Suspected killer of Christian student freed

January 30, 2018 Pakistan Caste, Lahore, Multan, Pakistan, Sharoon Masih, Vehari

The Muslim man arrested and jailed for killing a Christian fellow student has been released on bail, reports Asia News. Judges at the Multan High Court in Lahore, who released Ahmed Raza, said “no clear evidence was collected to attest to [his] guilt”. Sharoon Masih, 17, was beaten to death . . . Read More

Pakistan: Christian cleaner dies at work, leaving wife and two children

January 25, 2018 Pakistan Caste, Gujranwala, Karachi, Minorities, Pakistan, Pakistan Peoples Party, Punjab, Sindh, Sweepers

A Pakistani Christian, who fell ill after inhaling poisonous gasses at work, died on Saturday (20 January) after three days on a life-support machine. Shahzad Masih, 24, who leaves a wife and two young children, worked as a sewer cleaner in the Korangi area of the southern city of Karachi, . . . Read More

What makes Pakistan’s small religious minorities so significant?

November 24, 2017 Pakistan Caste, Constitution, Human rights, Lahore, Minorities, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan, Punjab

Pakistan conducted its first census in 19 years in July. All the results have now been released, except those on religious minorities. The government has provided no explanation. On 22 November a small group of protesters, mostly Christians, gathered outside the Press Club in Lahore, the major city in Pakistan’s . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians face discrimination in prisons too

November 1, 2017 Pakistan Caste, Gujranwala, Kasur, Minorities, Pakistan, Peshawar, Prisons, Punjab, Taliban

Pakistani Christians, often discriminated against because of their faith and standing as members of Pakistan’s lowest caste, find that discrimination follows them in prisons as well. The justice system is extremely slow in Pakistan and, as a result, thousands of Pakistanis languish in overcrowded jails, having yet to face trial. . . . Read More

Pakistani, 17, targeted by teacher and students, dies after beating on second day of high school

September 12, 2017 Pakistan Burewala, Caste, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Islamic extremism, Mardan, Pakistan, Punjab, Sharoon Masih, Vehari

The mother of a 17-year-old Christian beaten to death in his classroom, on his second day in high school, has told the police that her son was “hated because of his religion”. Sharoon Masih was on only his second day at MC Model High School in Vehari, Punjab when it . . . Read More

Pakistani sewage worker dies after 3 doctors on Ramadan fast refuse to touch him

June 5, 2017 Pakistan Caste, Ramadan, Sindh, Sweepers

As Pakistani Christians comprise more than 80 per cent of the country's sewerage and street cleaning force, they run a higher risk of work related injuries, sometimes causing death. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Pakistani Christian sewerage cleaner has died after three doctors refused to treat him till his sludge-covered body had been washed; they said their Ramadan fast would be invalid (“makruh”) because he was “unclean” and also belonged to a low caste. (The word for low caste, “chuhra”, especially derogatory, is . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians ‘attacked’ as land dispute escalates

February 10, 2017 Pakistan Caste, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Lahore, Minorities, Narowal, Pakistan, Punjab, Rimsha Masih

More than 200 men, some armed with sticks, suddenly gathered on Wednesday morning (8 Feb) beside the Alba Presbyterian Church in Sankhatra, 115km north of Lahore, intent on building a boundary wall. “Children were going to school and men were leaving for work when this large number stormed into the . . . Read More

Pakistani policeman beats up church leader over ‘loudspeaker music’

June 16, 2016 Pakistan Caste, Dalits, Deobandi, Islamic extremism, Kasur, Lahore, Pakistan Peoples Party, Pentecostals, Police, Punjab

The Pentecostal United Church in Lahore, Pakistan, where Riaz Rehmat is pastor.World Watch Monitor A church leader in Lahore was beaten up during his Sunday service by a policeman, during a dispute over whether or not music was being played over his church loudspeaker. Lahore has the largest concentration . . . Read More

India: jobs for Jat caste ‘sidelines’ Christians

March 1, 2016 India Caste, Haryana, India, Jat, Madhya Pradesh

Church leaders in India have condemned as a the government’s decision to offer job quotas, usually reserved for more disadvantaged castes, to the relatively wealthy Jat community. The federal government agreed on 21 Feb. to introduce a Jat quota bill at their March assembly, after violent demonstrations across Haryana state . . . Read More

Pakistan NGO tackles demeaning low-caste word for ‘Christians’

November 2, 2015 Pakistan Caste, Constitution, Dalits, Pakistan, Sweepers, Youhanabad

A program organised by Bargad, Pakistan’s biggest NGO for youth development, is attempting to tackle the social stigma Christians face from the word used in the Constitution for them. The Urdu “Isai” (derived from “Isa“, the Arabic word for “Jesus” used in the Qur’an) now carries strong overtones – from . . . Read More

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