Christians Forced Out of Their Homes in Landi Kotal, Pakistan

Landi Kotal, Kyber Pass, Pakistan

LANDI KOTAL: 

The Christian community of Khyber Agency has alleged that it has been told to leave the Landi Kotal army camp without any prior notice.

Members of the community said they had been ordered to leave the area on Sunday while they were offering weekly prayers. They complained that no prior notice was given to them nor was any alternative provided for their accommodation.

Chairman of the Christian community of Khyber Agency Arshad Masih said they have been living in the area since 1914 when they were brought there by British rulers. According to him, the land was given to the British by the Khugakhel tribe for a hundred-year period.

The Frontier Corps (FC), which also existed at the time under the name of Frontier Constabulary, now says the lease is over and the people must vacate the land, said Masih.

He lamented that all requests to reverse the decision fell on deaf ears with political administrators including senior officials saying the area fell under the jurisdiction of FC.

The Frontier Corps , when contacted, declined to comment on the issue.

Masih, however, rubbished speculation suggesting the tribal people posed a threat to their safety, and stressed the locals of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) were “peace loving people.”

Another prominent member of Khyber Agency’s Christian community, Wilson Wazir said the Frontier Corps  had asked the males of their families to leave immediately, while the women and children had taken shelter in hotels around Peshawar and Khyber Agency.

Some were also residing with their relatives in the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“I am here at a hotel in Landi Kotal and my family is not with me,” said Wazir, adding that the community will approach minority ministers Paul Bhatti and Akram Masih Gill to take up the issue.

Wazir added they could not purchase land as most property in the area was disputed over.

Meanwhile, members of the Christian community staged demonstrations to protest against the move. Families holding banners denouncing the decision chanted slogans against the force and chorused: “Where will the poor go now that winter is coming?”

Pastor Arrested for Alleged Blasphemy.

Sangla Hill, Pakistan

Pastor Karma Patrus was arrested Saturday night, after preaching in a Christian family's home. Four muslim families also attended the meeting, requesting that the Pastor pray for healing over sick family members. As he reached home, the loudspeakers on the mosques around his home were screaming condemnation. Calling for all "good muslims" to rise up and punish the infidel Pastor for daring to "convert" muslims.

"He is a blasphemer, an infidel and should  be killed." With this sentiment running thick in the air, hundreds of loyal followers attacked the Pastor's home. 

The mob caused such an uproar that as police came to the scene they found the chaos of hundreds of disturbed people destroying the victims home and beating him mercilessly. After some pressure, the police arrested the thoroughly tortured Pastor into "preventative custody"; but later remanded him under Section 295C PPC Blasphemy Law.

This is not the first time that the Pastor had held open healing and prayer meetings in Sangla Hill, as a well known Evangelist, Muslims and Christians alike often came to him asking for prayer over their ailments and their families. Why? Obviously because they all know Jesus HEALS.

But radical leaders and clerics of local mosques clearly found this to be a threat and have finally made good on their paranoia, accusing the Pastor of pressuring and focing Muslims to convert to Christianity.

Women's Rights, Taliban Reasoning, and Other Pakistani Fables.

The recent crime against humanity via the terroristic shooting of 14 year old Women's Education poster child in Pakistan, one Malala Yousufzai, has once again put Pakistan in the spotlight worldwide. Pakistan's rage against freedom is renowned --but the events of every new month seem to top the last.

Thankfully the young girl has been taken out of Pakistan immediately for treatment and arrived today in Birmingham, UK. I am really grateful to God for her and her family's opportunity, that she is able to receive the best treatment and receive healing. 

Even though I would never want to take anything away from that, a part of me --the part that knows the broken hearts of the voiceless must be echoed somewhere-- feels the need to reveal the hypocrisy in this entire situation. While Malala was made a Princess in Pakistan by the media, she is like thousands of other girls in Pakistan believe that they have rights. Malala's only crime was to speak up and say that she has the right to be educated. A simple truth.

But Malala still has the masses by her side; this past week has witnessed tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in support of her right to live and live freely; men women and children from every status and religion support her. But where are they when other Pakistani women suffer for simple truths?

Asia Bibi.

Rimsha Masih.

And the countless other women who have been imprisoned, tortured, killed --and unlike Malala, most of these women aren't fighting for anything but the right to be alive, be with their families; to be allowed to love and obey God. In fact, the large majority of them have not even said as much. Where is the nationwide million person outrage and immediate international support for them? For these women it takes time, media pressure, and really just a miracle to get anything tangible done. Malala deserves justice and support, and so does every other woman regardless of where in Pakistan they come from and whether or not they are Muslim --denying one of them is a setback for all women.

But back to the Pakistan of October 2012, it seems that there is a significant percent of the population, that is becoming more and more vocal about their delusional beliefs and false logic. Take for example today's article by one  Kunwar Khuldune Shahid of Pakistan Today; like the majority of informed people, Kunwar believes that the Taliban are acting in accordance with Islamic Principles; but true to form this Pakistani journalist can't speak truth without knocking other religions and falsifying history to justify his own faith.

Have a read below:

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Let’s call a spade a spade instead

By: Kunwar Khuldane Shahid

The Malala incident is déjà vu times million. You have religious ‘extremists’ manifesting brutality; the ‘educated’ class calls the act heinous, the ‘intellectuals’ label the offenders as beasts, the ‘liberals’ protest against the ‘cowardly act’ and while everyone is condemning the act, they remain shushed about the root cause of it all: the ideology. Throughout the past every single person who has denounced the Taliban has acted as an apologetic, justifying the religious ideology and claiming how those ‘uneducated morons’ have ‘unfortunately’ misinterpreted the teachings of peace and tranquility – no, they haven’t, ‘unfortunately’.

It is so painfully amusing to note how the ‘moderates’ and armchair revolutionaries, would sit there with a glass of vine in their hands, uninhibitedly hanging out with the opposite sex, not having offered a prayer or fasted for ages, claiming how the Taliban – who lead their lives strictly according to the Shariah – are infesting their religion of harmony. The poor chaps are only doing what their scriptures – the ones that the pseudo intellectuals extol, or don’t have the cojones to criticize – tell them to do. When you are being taught, through the scriptures that are universally recognized by the followers as ‘authentic’, that all the non-believers or threats to the grandeur of your ideology should be killed, you will kill them, where is the misinterpretation here?

Finding slaves or slave girls, repulsive; physically assaulting women, disgusting; cutting off hands for theft, inhuman; stoning people to death, beastly and then venerating the ideology that permits this at the same time is hypocrisy of the very highest order. You sit there, criticize and mock the Taliban that follow your religion in its true form while you live in oblivion with your extremely palatable, but simultaneously blatantly fallacious, brand of religion and then claim that the Taliban are misinterpreting and misapprehending your ideology? Oh, the irony.

Let’s stop carving out quasi religions, or defending ideologies that we’ve all grown up blindly following as the truth. Let’s call a spade a spade instead and realize that at the end of the day as much as you might have a cardiac arrest admitting it, the root cause of religious extremism is: religion – especially in its raw crude form, which again is the only ‘authentic’ form.

Every single religion has a violent streak. Every single one of them orders violence and killing in one form or the other for the ‘non-believers’. One can quote verses from every holy scripture depicting loathe and despise for anyone who doesn’t believe in the said scripture and its propagator. Sure, those scriptures would have the occasional fit of peace as well, but that only springs into the open when it is recognized as the only supreme authority. Every religion is a ‘religion of peace’ as long as it formulates the status quo; there is no concept of ideological symbiosis in any religion. When a tyrannical regime or dictator calls for peace with the condition that they would reign supreme we label them as oppressors, but when this is done in the name of religion we tout it as maneuvers of ‘harmony’.

The Taliban have defended the attack on Malala Yousafzai through scriptures and historic precedents. You can clamor all you want about how there is a lack of understanding on the part of the Taliban, but how on earth can you refute clear messages of violence and historical evidence – scribed by historians of your faith – depicting brutality on the part of some of the most illustrious people in the history of the religion? It is easy to launch vitriol against the Taliban for attacking a 14-year-old girl, but it is also equally hypocritical and pathetic when you eulogize people from your history who did the same in the past, who massacred masses, destroyed lands, pulverized places of worship, raped women, just because they ostensibly did it in the name of your religion. Don’t blame the Taliban for following their lead, don’t blame the Taliban for using violence as a means to cement religious superiority – something that has been done for centuries – don’t blame the Taliban for the fact that you don’t have the guts to call a spade a spade even though it has been spanking your backside for centuries now.

The fact that groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban-Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi exist is because Islam is still traversing its Dark Ages while other religions have gone through Reformation, resulting in a collective Renaissance – and that too half a millennium ago. None of the religion in its crude form can work in this day and age, and instead of taking the easy route and scorning at those that follow religious teachings in its original form, the more logical approach would be to accept the truth.

If you’re acknowledging Islam as the supreme authority, you have no grounds for hauling coals over Zia-ul-Haq for implementing laws from the Shariah, you have no grounds for attacking Mumtaz Qadri or feeling sorry for Salmaan Taseer who clearly spoke against the blasphemy law, you have no grounds for lauding Dr Abdul Salaam as a national asset who belonged to a sect that clearly defies Islamic teachings, and yes, you have no grounds for blaming the Taliban.

It’s time our ‘thinkers’ stopped taking the easy way out and finally picked a side. You either follow a religion in its true form or you’re irreligious. The Taliban know which side they are on. Do you?

The writer is Editor Business/City (Karachi), Pakistan Today. He tweets @khuldune and can be contacted at khulduneshahid@gmail.com

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Needless to say I think this is utter bullsh*t. But hey, at least he's admitting this is their scripture given reality. Putting aside that everyone seems to claim that Christianity has somehow radically changed over the years --what other religions is this guy talking about? Hinduism? Sikhism? Bhuddism? VooDoo? Wiccans? Nope. They're still the same.

via AsiaNews.it -- The latest inhuman disgusting pig like act against Christians straight from Pakistan.

Faisalabad: 16 year old Christian girl gang raped for hours by young Muslims
by Shafique Khokhar
The rape took place in the house of one of the three members of the group, all belonging to wealthy families. The incident occurred in broad daylight; the desperate cries for help of the girl in vain. The father tells AsiaNews: "despite our poverty, I will not accept compromise." Vicar General: "poor family, but rich in the Catholic faith. They deserve justice. "


Faisalabad (AsiaNews) - A new case of gang rape against a Christian minor in Pakistan. The rape occurred in broad daylight, for hours, in a private home where three young Muslims - all under 30 - abused a defenseless girl. A story, Fr. Bonnie Mendes tells AsiaNews that demonstrates "the powerlessness of the poor in Pakistan," which is reflected "in all its evidence in events such as the sexual abuse of Shumaila" which took place on September 20 last, but has only now been revealed by the press. A story similar to that which occurred Sept. 4 - again in Faisalabad - when a 60 year old Muslim merchant has raped a Christian girl of 10. These episodes confirm the increase of attacks against children in Punjab, as evidenced by a survey carried out by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), covering the first five months of 2012, which documents 122 cases of violations in the province: among these, at least 40 sexual, 14 murders, 22 kidnappings, 14 corporal punishment, six forced marriages and 13 deaths due to lack of basic medical care.

Shumaila Masih, a native of Chak 226, Samundari, in the district of Faisalabad (Punjab), is the oldest of four children of a poor Christian family. On the morning of September 20 the girl was headed to the house of a wealthy Muslim, where her mother worked as a maid, to warn of sudden visit by some guests. On the way she met three young Muslims - Iftikhar Hussain 27, Shahid Munir and Muhammad Imran both 30 - who tried at first to persuade her to go with them. At her refusal, the three took her by force and locked her up in the house of Iftikhar Hussain, taking turns raping her for hours. The attack took place at 11 am, in broad daylight, but no one intervened to save Shumaila, despite the desperate cries and pleas for help. At about 5 pm the father Manzoor Masih, along with two cousins, began searching for the girl when she failed to return home. Arriving close to the house where she was being held they heard her cries. At the sight of the men, the three young Muslims fled, leaving Shumaila naked and in pain on the bed.

Her father reported the incident to police who opened an investigation and arrested two of the three members of the pack. The last, Shahid Munir, is still at large and the police have launched searches to arrest him. Meanwhile, a medical report has confirmed the gang rape suffered by the girl, who is now a guest of the family of her uncle for security reasons. Shumaila has extensive physical and psychological injuries, as well as pain and injuries that prevent her from even walking. Contacted by AsiaNews the girl's father Manzoor Masih, 45, swears that "despite our poverty, I will never reach a compromise settlement" with the rapists of his daughter. He hopes that these elements "are punished according to the law," so that everybody understands that "it is not permissible to assault any young girl" just because you are rich or powerful. "These people are monsters - concludes the parent - and must be punished without mercy" -

Fr. Bonnie Mendes, former Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Church of Pakistan, also insists on the poverty factor, while stressing that the violence occurred "in broad daylight" at the hands of "rich young Muslims." The young girl "continues to suffer" and does not get justice, "because of her poverty." As long as the lower segments of the population do not unite, the priest adds, "they can never aspire to social equality." He thoughts are echoed by Fr. Khalid Rasheed Asi, vicar general of the diocese of Faisalabad, according to who "religious minorities and marginalized groups are easy targets for wealthy landowners in rural areas." "I personally know the victim - he adds - because I was pastor in that area, they are a very poor family, but rich in the Catholic faith. They deserve justice."

Christian Teenage Servant Disappears After Caught "Watching TV" and Tortured

via Robert William, World Vision in Progress:

A Christian girl named Sumbal Masih, daughter of Sardar Masih aged 15 or 16 had been working as a maid in house at, Model Town, Lahore for two years along with her younger sister Sadaf Masih and a cousin named Rabiya. 

On 14th September 2012, Sumbal was watching TV in the owner’s room. Suddenly the owner came and started beating the poor girl for watching movie. They beat her so harshly using pipes or iron rods. 

Afterwards they took her to the washroom and tortured her terribly. She was yelling and crying for help. This entire incident was reported by Sumbal’s cousin Rabiya. When Rabiya and other servants heard Sumbal crying for help, they ran upstairs to help her but the owner took Sumbal to the washroom and sent Rabiya and other servants downstairs therefore they could not find that what they did with Sumbal. 

When Sumbal’s parents came to know about this incident through Rabiya, they ran to get their daughters back, but the owners said that Sumbal had fled from their house and they didn't know her whereabouts. They refused to give Sadaf, the second daughter back to them as well. World Vision in Progress ground officer Nipoleon Qayyum along with WVIP team are currently attempting to deal with this grave issue and hence Mr. Nipoleon Qayyum and the mother of the girls Basheera bibi went to the owner's house; a Mr. Adeel of house number 132-J block model town Lahore --to get their daughters . Mr. Nipoleon Qayyum was forced to sit in the lawn of the house whereas Baseehra bibi was taken inside by Mr and Mrs. Adeel after two hours waiting outside. Nipoleon Qayyum came outside and he suggested Sumbal’s father to call the police. 

When the police reached there, Mr. Adeel sent Basheera bibi along with her second daughter Sadaf outside. However they are still making excuses regarding Sumbal Masih . Tomorrow WVIP is filing a petition in the session court of Lahore to rescue Sumbal. We therefore request the Hon. Chief Minister of Punjab to take notice in this regard. 

WVIP Team

Christian Girl Forcibly Converted to Islam and Married Against Her Will, Pakistan

Sunny Gill Reporting:

Aney Tariq, the 10 year old daughter of Tariq Masih, residing in Dhula Gujranwala --a young girl of only grade six was kidnapped on the 4th of September by a Muslim man by the name of Hader Ali (son of Mohammad Ijaz). After kidnapping Aney, Hader Ali forcibly converted her into Islam and married her against her will.

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Please keep our daughter Aney in your prayers church, SHE IS JUST A CHILD. No less than your own children, yet no doubt this girl has suffered ordeals that we can not imagine. Pray for her family as they bear the intense pain of loss and pray that God brings Aney back home to those who love her. God give us strength.

Pakistan's Protests Against Anti-Islamic Film

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Sunny Gill Reporting:

Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen staged riotous protests in the city of Karachi heading towards the US Consulate. Thousands of protesters gathered at the consulates main gate, to register their protest against the film which allegedly began an uproar throughout the Muslim world due to it's content against the Islamic Prophet Mohammad. 

This rally, which had reached very close the the consulate, was stopped at three different points by authorities who attempted and failed to negotiate with and disperse the crowd. Police then resorted to aerial firing and the use of water cannons which resulted in a more effective dispersal of the rowdy protesters. Barriers have now been erected on routes leading to the US Consulate. 

Protesters burned effigies of American Film-Makers, and lit American Flags on fire. 

The outrage against this film has been mirrored by Religious Parties, Christian minority groups, Traders and Civil Society Members who also staged smaller protests across Pakistan; condemning the movie that has been deemed offensive by US President Barack Obama, and the Muslim world alike. Western media has also widely rebuked the filmmaker for hurting the sentiments of Muslims and sabotaging interfaith harmony across the world.

UPDATE: One person has been shot and killed by police in their attempts to stop the protest, and the entire city of Karachi is in an uproar. So far six police vehicles, many motorcycles have been lit on fire. Many policemen and rangers have been injured in the attempts to stop people from coming near the US Consulate.

FIRING on St. Francis Xavier Church, Hyderabad Pakistan

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Sunny Gill Reporting:
Today on the 16th of September, the Hyderabad Catholic Diocese and Protestant denominations had arranged a protest against the anti-Islamic film, which allegedly began the intense rioting in the Middle East in this past week. While returning from the protest a van in which sisters and Nuns were sitting was openly fired on by unknown assailants. The driver of the van, one Imran Masih was injured in this assault. During this same time more unidentified assailants also openly shot at St. Francis Xavier Church --one man reported as being named "Mangi" has lost his life in this deadly act of violence.

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I would personally like to send a prayer request out for the suffering church in Pakistan. They extended their hand out to their fellow Muslim brothers in solidarity against an insult to their faith --and in turn were brutally targeted for their own faith. This is unacceptable, and I pray that the families of these victims find solace in the Lord, and that He comforts and guides them and this entire community as they grieve this unimaginable loss. 

I also ask you to pray for the people of Essa Nagri, on September 12th at approximately 4:20am more terrorist violence flooded the streets of this Christian colony --during the firing one of our own, Mr. Yousaf Masih the son of Inayat Masih was shot and killed.