policeman died and at least 32 people were injured in two bomb blasts in Karachi amid worries about growing Islamic violence against Western and Christian targets in the country.
Wednesday’s blasts near the Pakistan-American Cultural Center in the port city underscored concern among human rights watchdogs about the increased pressure on both foreign and Pakistani Christians, as they have been linked by Islamic militants of al Qaeda and other groups to the United States-led war on terror.
Barnabas Fund, which monitors especially the situation of Christians in mainly Muslim nations, has reported that Muslim groups are using violence, kidnapping and torture to force Christians to give up their faith and become their followers.
SEVERE TORTURE
In one of its latest documented cases it cited an Islamic seminary in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab Province, where a young Christian died after Muslims allegedly tortured him for five days and nights in order to force the teenager to convert to Islam.
"Students from the seminary run by Maulvi Ghulam Rasool set upon 19-year old Javaid Anjum, accusing him of stealing their water pump when they found him drinking from an outside tap on 17 April 2004. Javaid replied to their accusations by freely telling them he was a Christian merely searching for a drink and that they could be assured that he would not steal anything," Barnabas Fund said in a statement received by ASSIST News Service.
"Upon learning that Javaid was a Christian, those accosting him forcibly took him into the school where he was tortured for five days by Maulvi Ghulam Rasool and others. Throughout his torture, Javaid’s tormentors ordered him to deny his Christian faith and embrace Islam."
DYING TEENAGER
Finally they reportedly took the dying young man to a local police station and accused him of theft, the organization claimed. Soon after he arrived in hospital where Javaid in a video statement described his ordeal, which eventually lead to kidney failure. "He did not recover from his torture and died in hospital," Barnabas Fund claimed.
The organization, which apparently saw the video, said Javaid, who was a university student reading commerce, was abducted after returning to his grandfather’s house following a visit to an aunt. It said he was given electric shocks repeatedly to various parts of his body including his ears, which damaged his hearing, and that his right arm and fingers were fractured and his nails were pulled out.
In addition "his feet were swollen from beating and he suffered contusions and lacerations all over his body. He received many internal injuries, and besides the two failed kidneys the doctors’ report notes that he passed blood or pus instead of urine. In many places his skin appeared blackened and oozed pus and he could barely move."
CRACK DOWN
There was no independent confirmation from authorities, but the government of Pakistan has officially expressed its support for a crack down against Islamic extremism and the war on terror.
Barnabas Fund said that the head constable at the police station where Javaid was brought claimed, in a "shocking statement" that "it was God’s will" that the teenager had to die with torture "and that Muslims there caught and punished him without intending to kill him."
It has made clear that this was not an isolated incident and has urged Christians around the world to "pray for the safety of Christians in Pakistan in the face of increasing instances of anti-Christian hate-crimes since the U.S. invasion of (neighboring) Afghanistan."
Barnabas Fund also asked prayers so "that Muslims would find such inhuman abuse shocking and condemn these atrocities that occur in the name of Islam" and that those responsible would actually be convicted. Less than 3 percent of Pakistan’s over 135 million people are believed to be Christian.
