"They ransacked and set ablaze the house," in the industrial city of Sheikhupura, 35-year-old Boota Masih, an impoverished Christian sanitary worker, told BosNewsLife. He linked the attack to his reporting corrupt activities of fellow workers at the local GEPCO Poll Plant, where he had been working for the last two years.
He said he had been threatened after submitting an application to his senior officers regarding alleged corruption of two Muslim colleagues. “In revenge, about 10 armed men” attacked the Christian family and injuring Masih, his wife Sema, his son Adeel and his nephew Akram, he said.
“The attackers ransacked the entire house and set it on fire. They warned me of more violence if attempted to contact the police,: he said, speaking from an undisclosed location through a mediator. He said police did register a case against the culprits after the intercession of a local court. Masih’s wife Sema has been warned via telephone from an anonymous caller that her husband would be murdered, local sources said.
INCREASING ATTACKS
Attacks against Christian workers and church leaders have recently increased in Punjab Province, BosNewsLife learned. Just shortly before the attack, a 30-year-old nun of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, survived a murder attempt in nearby Lahore by an unknown person on March 8, which was also International Women’s Day, Christian rights activists said.
The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) with web site www.persecution.org told BosNewsLife it has just learned that Sister Nusrat Shafity was alone in the convent in Youhanabad, the biggest Christian neighborhood in Pakistan, when an assailant came in and slashed her neck twice with a dagger, attempting to slit her throat. Thinking that he had accomplished his mission, the attacker left her for dead, ICC said.
"The other four sisters who worked at the convent were participating in services elsewhere, and had left Sr. Nusrat alone because she was not feeling well. When they returned, they were alarmed to find Sr. Nusrat lying in a pool of blood and rushed her to the Lahore General Hospital. She was still undergoing medical care when this report was written," ICC said in a statement.
ICC Policy Analyst, Jeremy Sewall, said, "If Muslims want to defend their religion, let them come forward like men and meet ideological challengers with legitimate arguments. Attempting to murder a helpless, innocent, charity worker only serves to de-legitimize the truth claims of those who seek to defend Islam."
