The ACLJ Assisting in Work to Protect Christians in Pakistan - Persecution of Minorities Continues

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is working with the Community Development Initiative (CDI) - a Christian organization that is involved in protecting Christians who face persecution in Pakistan.

The following report is from the ACLJ's Shaheryar Gill:

In January 2009, Pakistani police brutally tortured Arshad Masih, a father of three, breaking his backbone. Arshad’s father is a pastor who used to visit a Christian family residing in a Muslim area, despite the resistance from Muslims who tried to force him not to visit the family and to “stop propagating the false religion.”

The pastor and his family believe that the Muslims conspired with the local police and falsely implicated the pastor’s son in a false robbery case in which he was not even named. Although the police arrested several others in the same case, they released them but kept Arshad Masih in illegal detention for 22 days and brutally tortured him. The police hung him by his hands while his hands were tied behind his back. They continuously kicked him resulting in spinal injuries. The police demanded Rs. 50,000 (U.S. $ 621) from the family in order to release their son, which they could not pay. The police then acquired a fake certificate of fitness from a hospital and sent him to jail.

His attorney filed an application in the court that he be sent to the hospital for treatment and medico-legal analysis. Even though Arshad Masih is paralyzed and cannot stand on his feet, he has been chained to the hospital bed by the police. His family is afraid that if the police get his physical custody, they would kill him in a fake police encounter - a common practice in Pakistan.

The ACLJ is supporting the Community Development Initiative (CDI), a Christian organization that is defending Arshad Masih and providing for his treatment.

In another incident of Christian persecution in Pakistan, a 12-year-old Christian girl, Huma, was abducted and forced to marry a Muslim man. Huma’s mother, Sajida, while filing the police complaint, told the police that Huma was 12, but the police wrote in the First Information Report (FIR) that she was 16 (legal age for a girl to marry in Pakistan). The abductor, Imran, and his father, Muhammad Saddiq, who claim that the girl had willfully converted to Islam and married Imran, have obtained a fake birth certificate showing she is 18.

Because the girl has not been presented before the court yet, the ACLJ’s partners, CDI and their attorney, filed a petition for habeas corpus to recover her. The court appointed an official who raided her suspected location but could not find her. We are told that during the raid, the police seemed friendly to the other party. Once people hear that the girl has converted to Islam, they take sides with the abductors. A court hearing has been scheduled for June 11 when the girl would appear before the court.
Huma’s mother says that when she went to the police station and begged for her daughter, the police officials laughed at her, humiliated her, and shoved her away saying that she could do nothing. But after the ACLJ’s and CDI’s intervention, the same police officials’ disposition changed. Even though the court official was not able to recover her daughter, it was the first day she had a full meal since her daughter has been gone, Huma’s mother says.

In Pakistan, persecution against Christians is reaching new heights. With the increase in drone attacks inside Pakistan, anger against the United States and local Christians is growing which is being vented by attacking local Christians. Christians are perceived as American “spies and agents” and efforts are made to forcibly convert them to Islam. A few days ago, a Christian man’s throat was cut because he refused to convert to Islam.

In yet another case, a Christian nurse, Tehmina Ruby, was falsely charged by her Muslim counterparts for stealing hospital medicine because she refused to carry out the tasks she was not officially responsible for. First, a Muslim nurse threatened her. Then she falsely accused the nurse of stealing the medicine. The nurse was removed from her service without any inquiry or a chance to defend herself.

The ACLJ is supporting the CDI in these cases and working closely with their staff and attorneys to defend Pakistani Christians against persecution. We will continue to bring you developments on these and other cases as they unfold.