The agent, who was only identified as Zahid, 30, for security reasons, worked for life insurance company Eastern Federation Union (EFU) in Attock district before he was targeted "by Muslim radicals because he acted as a witness in a marriage between a Christian man and a Muslim woman," said US-based rights group International Christian Concern (ICC) with website www. persecution.org.
EFU executives were pressured by Muslim clerics to fire him or face attacks against the company and its staff, ICC said. On May 16, EFU executives included Zahid in a meeting in his future, but ordered him to sit apart and be silent, the group added, citing local sources.
"The company decided quickly to fire Zahid and told him not to come in to work the following day."
LIVING IN FEAR
Zahid is currently living in fear for his life, and is worried that he will never be able to move freely in public, or even meet openly with his family and friends. He will never be able to escape the fatwa because it guarantees a spot in heaven to any Muslim who kills him.
The incident came amid reports that another prominent Pakistani Christian was nearly shot and killed by militants. Joseph Francis, a coordinator of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) was attacked May 23 in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, said the group’s partner organization Jubilee Campaign USA.
"Francis was followed going from his office to his home. He was chased by two unknown men on motor bikes from the fundamentalist group Jamiat-e-ulema," said Jubilee Campaign USA Director Ann Buwalda.
WEARING GREEN TURBANS
"They wore green turbans, a distinct symbol of members in this group. One of the men pulled out his gun and tried to stop Francis in his car. Due to the heavy traffic, Francis was able to avoid the men’s attempts to stop him en route and called his staff members for help," she told BosNewsLife. Fellow workers reportedly rushed to the scene and helped hin get away.
The men allegedly shouted that Francis committed blasphemy, an offense punishable by death, citing his involvement in supporting Christian Danish Masih, who has been accused of blasphemy against Islam. He also was accused of encouraging other Christians to commit blasphemy "without fear" instead of embracing Islam, the group said.
This was the second reported attack on Francis. In March he was reportedly attacked while helping a 19-year-old Christian woman, identified as Sadia, to find shelter after she was raped and forcibly married and forced to convert to Islam. "The night Francis and Sadia arrived at the rehabilitation center, a group of extremists attacked (their) car smashed the windshield,” causing the vehicle to run into the sidewalk," seriously damaging the vehicle, Buwalda said. "Thankfully, everyone was safe and a police patrol car came before anything more serious happened."
Her organization urged supporters to pray while CLAAS lawyers have taken legal steps, she said. ICC representative Jeremy Sewall said the tensions in Pakistan underscore a wider problem.
WIDER PROBLEM REPORTED
ICC official Jeremy Sewall said the tensions in Pakistan underscore a wider problem. "In Muslim societies, the father determines what religion the children will be, and so the marriage of a Christian man to a Muslim woman is a severe affront to Islam. On the other hand, Muslims have no problem if a Muslim man marries a Christian woman," he said.
"This lack of reciprocity is designed to guard Islam from other religions, and causes Muslims to wink when Muslim men rape Christian women but demand death for those who even assist a freely chosen marriage between a Christian man and a Muslim woman."
It was not immediately clear Saturday, June 7, what steps Pakistan authorities would take to ease tensions in Punjan province. There has been local and international pressure on the Pakistani government to change controversial blasphemy laws in Pakistan, where Christians are in a minority.
