Tag: Punjab

Pakistani Christian schoolgirl told: ‘Do Islamic studies instead of Ethics, or leave this school’

May 23, 2017 Pakistan Education, Mardan, Punjab, Taliban

A Christian girl studying at a state school in Pakistan has been told by her teacher that, if she refuses to take a class in Islamic Studies, then she should not be in that school. Muqadas Sukhraj chose instead to study Ethics, a subject created as an alternative for children . . . Read More

‘We have failed to protect non-Muslims’ – Pakistan government spokesman

May 18, 2017 Pakistan Islamic extremism, Punjab

An official from Pakistan’s Punjab province has acknowledged that the authorities have failed to protect Christians and other non-Muslims from Islamic extremists. “The intolerance, anger on religious matters and culture of lynching disturbs us,” Punjab government spokesman Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan told journalists and activists at a 12 May discussion in . . . 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

Pakistan court acquits all suspects in 2013 arson of Christian neighbourhood

January 31, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Lahore, Punjab, Sawan Masih, Sweepers

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday (28 Jan) acquitted every one of the more than 100 suspects accused of ransacking, looting and then burning a Christian neighbourhood in Lahore in March 2013. Pakistani Christians gather outside the Joseph Colony in Lahore on 10 March 2013, the day after more than . . . Read More

Pakistan PM premature in saying country will soon be ‘minority-friendly’

January 31, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Jamaat-e-Islami, Minorities, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party, Punjab, Sindh

Pakistan’s Prime Minister has said “the day is not far off when Pakistan will internationally be known as a minority-friendly country”. Pakistani Christians hold candles at a rally in Lahore on 29 March, 2016, after a terrorist attack claimed the lives of more than 70 people celebrating Easter. Meanwhile, a . . . Read More

Survey of schools for Pakistan’s Christian minority: 50% have no playground, 15% no notebooks

November 25, 2016 Pakistan Education, Islamabad, Karachi, Punjab, Sweepers

Anser Javed’s father was a sanitary worker in Karachi; his mother was a sweeper. When his father then died in a work accident, the Pakistani Christian boy was sent to an orphanage as his mother was too poor to care for him. Nevertheless, with support and personal determination, he eventually . . . Read More

Death sentence for killers of Christian couple burned alive in Pakistan

November 24, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Lahore, Punjab, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Pakistani Christians mourn the death of the couple burnt alive on 4 November 2014 for setting fire to some pages from the Qur’an. An Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore, Pakistan yesterday (23 Nov.) sentenced five men to death for the murder of a Christian couple who were burned alive in November . . . Read More

Report: Pakistan school textbooks riddled with religious ‘hate material’

August 25, 2016 Pakistan Balochistan, Education, Islamic extremism, Jamaat-e-Islami, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Taliban

A young girl does her school work in Karachi, Pakistan, in a 2011 photo.UN Photo / John Isaac / Flickr CC A report by Pakistan’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) says the government has failed to keep its promise to eradicate religious “hate material” from textbooks used . . . 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

Pakistani Christians on the run after blasphemy accusation

June 3, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gujrat, Islamic extremism, Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab, Sheikhupura

Jhonpari (hut), Sheikhupura.Sheikhu / Flickr / CC At least 10 Christian families have fled a village in eastern Pakistan after a man from a Christian community, who apparently converted to Islam ten years ago, was accused of sending a blasphemous message on Facebook Messenger. Tensions arose in Kot Amam . . . Read More

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