Pakistan: Policeman Tortures, Paralyzes Christian
A Pakistani Christian boy’s quarrel with a Muslim policeman’s son has led to his father’s imprisonment, torture, paralysis, and five-year prison sentence.
A Pakistani Christian boy’s quarrel with a Muslim policeman’s son has led to his father’s imprisonment, torture, paralysis, and five-year prison sentence.
Pakistani police ransacked run-down homes of Christians living in a slum of Pakistan’s 10th largest city and “severely tortured Christian women” leaving several of them “critically injured”, local residents told BosNewsLife.
A nation-wide alliance of Christian leaders, churches, mission agencies, and other Christian institutions in India has condemned widespread anti-Christian violence in the Indian state of Karnataka, which injured dozens, but “welcomed” the sentencing of those involved in church bombings.
Christians in Orissa state are anticipating Christmas with fear as Hindu extremists have called for a state-wide bandh, or forced shut-down on all sectors of society, on Dec. 25 – a move that could provide Hindu extremists the pretext for attacking anyone publicly celebrating the birth of Christ.
Thousands of Muslim protesters on Sunday (Nov. 23) attacked a Coptic church in a suburb of Cairo, Egypt, burning part of it, a nearby shop and two cars and leaving five people injured.
Authorities in an Egyptian village arrested 50 Coptic Christians, whose shops were then looted, to pacify Muslims following violence that erupted on Nov. 4 over a Christian boy’s unwitting break with custom.
In prison at the age of 14 for having fatally stabbed her uncle in northern Iraq, Asya Ahmad Muhammad’s early release on Nov. 10 thanks to a juvenile court decision was overshadowed by fear of retaliation from her extended Muslim family.
Dozens of Christian families in Pakistan’s second largest city refused to vacate their homes Tuesday, November 11, despite the expiration of an order from authorities to leave immediately, Christian rights investigators said.
Chinese officials have yet to declare a new court date for Alimjan Yimit, a Christian house church leader and ethnic Uyghur in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang detained since his arrest on Jan. 12.
Kyrgyzstan’s controversial new Religion Law was adopted unanimously by the country’s parliament Thursday, November 6, adding to concerns among small Christian groups and churches that they will be targeted by authorities.
Two Baptist pastors in two former Soviet republics faced legal challenges Monday, November 3, because they continued worship services despite opposition from local authorities, Christians and rights watchers said.
A dozen bomb blasts rocked the Indian state of Assam Thursday, October 30, killing at least 50 people and injuring 300 others, including Christians, a main alliance of churches and mission groups told BosNewsLife.
A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia on charges of “adultery” by supporters of an influential Islamic group which previously murdered Christian converts, BosNewsLife learned Sunday, November 2.
The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has learned that a blasphemy case brought against three Christians was dismissed on October 29, 2008 by a court in Algeria. The court is located in Ain Turk, a town 267 miles away from Algiers, the capital.
Among at least 24 aid workers killed in Somalia this year was one who was beheaded last month specifically for converting from Islam to Christianity, among other charges, according to an eyewitness.
Human rights lawyers of two underage sisters who already won a custody battle over a 10-year-old girl, prepared Saturday, October 25, to also regain custody of her elder sister, after reports the girls were raped and coerced into embracing Islam.
Family and activists continued efforts Wednesday, October 22, to obtain the release of two Uyghur devoted Christians in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, saying one of them may be executed while another believer is facing mistreatment in a labor camp.
An association of Christian agencies and individuals advocating human rights of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, remained concerned Wednesday, October 22, over the situation of several Christian prisoners, some of whom may be executed under recently adopted legislation.
Aid workers rushed Friday, October 17, to assist at least 10,000 Christians who so far fled Mosul amid fresh reports that Islamic extremists are trying to eradicate the Christian population in this northern Iraqi town.
Eritrean authorities confiscated and burned 1,500 Bibles from new high school students who arrived at country’s main military training city, and detained eight students who protested the destruction of the books, Christians said Wednesday, October 15.