Police on October 9 detained Javed Masih, a 22-year-old delivery driver and prominent member of pastor Christopher Manzer’s congregation, as he was leaving Manzer’s house, Christians said.
Compass Direct News, a Christian news agency, described the move as part of "ongoing intimidation" on the Pakistani pastor, who has been working in the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city.
The pastor of the Pentecostal Church of Jesus Disciples also received death threats, church sources said, including an apparently threatening telephone call warning him of imminent police arrival.
Police held Masih until 11 pm Tuesday, October 14, after his family and Manzer paid a bribe of 15,000 rupees (US$185), Compass Direct News said. Police officials had no comment. Mission group Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan said the man instigating the attacks is a man who opened a court case against Manzer, Masih and seven others, accusing them of kidnapping his wife, Sana Bibi.
Manzer counseled Bibi after she decided to return to her family and Christianity, Christians said. The man apparently blames the pastor for the divorce in March and a botched abortion that led to her death in May. Manzer has denied all of the accusations. It comes amid reports of rising tensions between minority Christians and Muslims in several parts of the Islamic nation.
