Hospital Hold-Up

A small coterie of Muslim businessman have tried to inveigle the police into helping them steal a whole hospital in Taxilla near Islamabad from the Presbyterian church several months ago. The Catholic bishop from Islamabad has intervened, and a district police officer investigated and promised that the culprits would be arrested. As usual, the culprits were prominent businessmen aided by influential local political figures. They claimed that the missionary-owned hospital had been sold to them, and that the hospital administrators were refusing to hand over the property. They filed a report with the police, and later ramped up the pressure by accusing the administrators of blasphemy.

The Catholic bishop, Rufin Anthony, said 'This is not a first attempt to take over Church or missionary property by force. The Christian Hospital in Taxila has been targeted by various groups in the past.'

Thankfully, a Gojra-type incident seems to have been avoided, but it could so easily have been that abuse of the blasphemy law and manipulation religious feeling for greedy theft of a hospital led to such an incident. The incident gives further weight to the need for the Government of Pakistan to turn from its cowardly deference to Islamicist fanatics, and re-commit to amending the corrupting and corrosive blasphemy laws.

Thanks again to Asia News for reporting this story.