Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
Pakistan a country in South Asia has continued with its hard posture on the Christian minorities as two Christians who were accused of blasphemy were brutally shot dead outside the court in Faisalabad.
This revelation was made by the International Christian Concern (ICC) in a release by its Regional Manager for Africa and South Asia, Jonathan Racho, adding that the two Christians Pastor Rashid Emmanuel and his brother Sajid Emmanuel were shot dead by masked Islamists as the police were transporting them from the court to jail.
He noted that a policeman accompanying the Christians was also seriously wounded by the attackers who escaped immediately after the shooting stressing that Pastor Emmanuel and his brother Sajid were arrested on July 2 after some Muslims accused them of writing a pamphlet with blasphemous remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.
According to Racho, the charges were based on hand-written and photo-copied pamphlets with remarks about the prophet Muhammad that the Muslims consider offensive adding that Rashid and his brother’s names and phone numbers were printed on the pamphlets.
“It’s outrageous that the Islamists managed to kill the Christians while they were under police custody. This is another indication of the value and the status of Christians within Pakistan. We call upon the international community to hold Pakistan responsible for its mistreatment of Christian minorities,” he also stated.
Responding to this ugly incidence, the Editor of the Pakistan Christian Post, Nazir Bhatti, said that during the court hearing the police expert witnesses indicated that the handwriting on the pamphlets doesn’t match Rashid or Sajid’s hand writing.
“We condemn the killing of the two Christians and we appeal to the Pakistani president to repeal the blasphemy law by executive order to stop the killings of Christians in Pakistan,” he added.
In Pakistan Islam is recognized as the state religion by the Constitution and the census data indicates that 97% of the population are Muslims. There are small non-Muslim religious groups: Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Bahá'ís, Kalash and others totaling 3%.
Although Pakistani Christians have not restricted themselves to any one area of activity, they have traditionally made an outstanding contribution in health, education, railways and the police force. They are also playing a growing role in the civil service and defense services.
ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. It provides awareness, advocacy, and assistance to the worldwide persecuted Church.
For additional information on ICC, log on to their website: http://www.persecution.org/
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