Church Attacked In Pakistan After Kidnappings And Murders (Worthy News In-Depth)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – An evangelical pastor in Pakistan’s Punjab province survived an attempt by Muslim extremists to torch his church Sunday after recent killings and kidnappings of other believers in the region, Christians told Worthy News.
The assailants reportedly tried to ignite a fire using petrol to destroy the Bethanya Church building in the Gulshan Colony area of Punjab’s town of Jambar Khurd in the Tehsil Pattoki region of Kasur District.
When they entered the church shortly after midnight on Sunday, the attackers set fire to the church window’s curtain, noted Sardar Mushtaq Gill, the founder of the Christian advocacy group LEAD Ministries Pakistan.
Pictures obtained by Worthy News also appeared to show that the attackers tried to destroy copies of the Bible and New Testament. “However, their plans were thwarted when Pastor Tanvir Boota became aware of the situation,” Gill told Worthy News.
“Upon being confronted [by the pastor], the perpetrators fled into the darkness of the night,” he stressed. “The curtain fire was quickly extinguished.”
The pastor informed local police, who initiated an investigation into the incident and were working to identify the unknown assailants, Christians said.
Sunday’s attack followed turbulent days when several Christians were kidnapped after previous killings, Gill confirmed. ”Asif Masih, a 50-year-old hardworking Christian farmer, was kidnapped and held hostage by a Muslim landlord in the village of Tarku, near the city of Manawala in Punjab province,” Gill explained.
‘INFLATED PRICE’
Gill said the landlord, publicly identified as Muhammad Ilyas, had demanded “an inflated price of 100,000 rupees ($354) per acre for sugar cane harvest proceeds,” which the Christian farmer could not pay.
The landlord also threatened to “seize his cow and crops” unless he paid. “The situation escalated” when Ilyas stole one of Masih’s cows and said the sugar cane crop belonged to him, Gill recalled. “Ilyas then began blackmailing Masih and threatened to kill him if he did not comply with his demands for money.”
Eventually, Masih “was kidnapped by Ilyas,” who drove him to a nearby canal and “continued his threats, forbidding Masih from contacting his family,” Gill told Worthy News. “The brutality did not end there. Ilyas later tied Masih to an iron chain and held him captive for two days in a cottage. His family found him and managed to free him last week.”
In a separate case, influential Muslims in the city of Faisalabad threatened Farooq Masih and his son Haroon, who was later abducted, Christians said.
The main suspect, publicly identified as Muhammad Zulfiqar, and others were allegedly involved in what Gill called “brutal violence against the Christian family.” Haroon Masih, he said, “was forcibly taken to the suspects’ den with the police’s connivance, where they severely tortured him with sticks in recent days.”
While he is now free, “no action has been taken by police so far,” according to LEAD investigators. “LEAD Ministries Pakistan condemns such incidents of torturing poor Christians,” the group said, adding that it is part of broader pressure on Christian workers, many of whom are held as bonded laborers at brick kilns.
The kidnappings and church attacks followed several deadly attacks against Christians in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Worthy News documented.
‘TRAGIC DEATH’
“The year 2025 began with the tragic death of another Christian farmer, Suleman Masih, a 24-year-old man who had found success in agriculture. Suleman was brutally attacked on December 29, 2024,” in the Gujranwala area “and succumbed to his injuries on January 1, 2025,” Gill said.
“At least about 10 more Christians died for their faith in Punjab since that time,” he added.
Pakistan ranks 8th on the Open Doors World Watch List of 50 nations where it says Christians suffer most for their faith in Christ.
“By far the most Christians live in Punjab Province, so many incidents of persecution, discrimination, and intolerance occur there,” the group added. “Next to Punjab, the province of Sindh is also notorious for being a center for bonded labor, which affects many Christians.”
Open Doors stressed that “Christians from Muslim backgrounds suffer the brunt of persecution from radical Islamist groups and families, friends and neighbors. Radicals regard them as apostates, while families and the community see conversion as a shameful act of betrayal.”
According to Christian researchers, Christians comprise roughly 1.8 percent of the mainly Muslim population of 252 million people.
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