Pakistan Evangelists Beaten at Muslim Festival
By BosNewsLife News Center
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife) — A team of Pakistani Christian evangelists was attacked and beaten after distributing over 13,000 Christian publications at a Muslim festival, the group supporting them said Wednesday, February 7.
Voice Of the Martyrs Australia (VOMA) said its workers were attacked in Pakpattan, a district of Punjab province, Friday January 26, but details of the incident apparently only emerged about 12 days later.
“Three members of the four-member team were roughed up by radical Muslims then taken to the police station where they were detained and questioned before being released,” VOMA told BosNewsLife in a statement.
“The fourth evangelist, the leader of the team, was badly beaten by a mob of more than 100 angry Muslims, who then dragged him through the crowd before taking him to the police station,” the group added. He was allegedly “severely beaten” and VOMA contacts took him to “a hospital for medical care.”
SUPPORTING CHRISTIANS
VOMA, which supports Christians persecuted for their faith, said it has urged its supporters to “pray for the country of Pakistan and all Christians who live there,” and that “God will heal the injuries of these courageous men” and for protection of their families.
The incident comes amid growing concerns about attacks against churches and individual Christians in Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim nation which has seen a search in Islamic extremism, observers say.
Some of the attacks have been linked to uneasiness among Muslim militants about the US-led war on terrorism the Pakistani government supports and the spread of Christianity which they view as a “Western” religion.
It was not immediately clear if a particular group was responsible for the attack against the evangelists or whether it was an isolated incident of local angry Muslims. (With reports from Pakistan. www.bosnewslife.com).
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