Police and army shoot and gas Christians in Karachi, one dead, pastor critically injured

Abbassi Shaheed Hospital - shot pastor taken here

Further to our recent story about the situation in Essa Nagri, Karachi, the situation has now escalated out of control, with riots and fighting in several Christian areas of Karachi, and the police refusing to arrest the Muslim violent mobs but instead firing tear gas and live rounds at the peaceful Christian demonstrations, killing one and leaving two Christians, including a pastor, critically injured and many others injured, with the police arresting at least a dozen peaceful Christians.   We have latest details and some more background.  

To recap, the story as we told it was that the whole Christian community had been charged with blasphemy by the local Jirga - council of elders - and fined. Things were already tense.  Two Christian boys  

The background is that Muslim extremists - described by local sources as Pashto speaking (which may indicate Taliban affiliation) - have been intimidating the Christian community and extorting money from Christian shopkeepers for 3 years - demanding an illegal tax known as bhatti.  They are coming into the Essa Nagri Christian enclave and firing at Christian homes when Christians are paying late.  This has been repeatedly reported to the police and the army rangers unit, but they took no action - what a surprise!  

The Christian community had organized young men to act as guards to deal with the constant drug-pushing, robberies, shooting and intimidation by Islamic extremists who acted in collaboration with local police, local sources say.  Our original article concerned tensions resulting from two Christian young boys who beat two Muslim boys who were hanging around or trying to rob Christians in Essa Nagri.  However, things further escalated when at around 7:15pm 29h August, two of the fundamentalists entered the Essa Nagri  slum and demanded money from Faisal Masih.  He refused and they shot him dead on the spot.  Several of the young Christian guards managed to apprehend the two murderers.  Initially it appears the police arrested the two Muslims.  In the morning, however, the local Pashtun community started to mob the police station, so the robbers were released, and the two Christians were arrested on charges of 'maltreating respectable Muslims'.   Two activists, Raja Yousuf Bhatti, and Liaquat Munawir, who is the leader of the Social Justice group MASS, went to the police station to ask for the release of the Christians.  The police promptly arrested them and then demanded that the Christians pay 100,000 rupees to the Muslim 'victims' before they could be released.  

At some point in the situation, the Christian community of Essa Nagri gathered to protest about this and the Muslim mobs attacking them.  They blocked  next-door Hassan Square for several hours.  The police and the army rangers chose not to arrest the Muslim attackers, but instead fired on the Christians and launched tear gas against them.  Pastor Cornelius was hit in the spine by a police or army ranger bullet as he crossed the road to enter Essa Nagri, and Shahzad Riaz was also critically injured.  An unknown number of other Christians were injured, but sources say 'many'.  In addition, the police arrested over a dozen more Christians who were protesting against the Muslim mob attacks.  

A local Karachi pastor has advised that there is also confirmed reports of fighting in another big Christian area in Karachi, in the Pahar Gunj area, with attacks by Pashtuns.  He calls for prayer for the church in Karachi and says the situation is very serious now, as now it will turn into a religious / blasphemy case.  

Sources : 1 and two local Christian pastors via FB

New blasphemy low - downs syndrome girl arrested!

Replacement of representative picture - Rimsha after release on bail.

Sign our petition here:

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/freerimshamasih

We have received reports of a new and appalling low in the ongoing abuse of blasphemy laws.  Allegedly, a Quran was found with some of its pages burned by Muslims in a Christian area of Islamabad - in previous cases the burning has nearly always shown to have been done by Muslims, or by mentally unstable people - and worse, they have had an 11 year old Christian girl with downs syndrome called Rimsha Masih arrested and charged with the crime.  Rimsha was arrested on the 17th August 2012.

Muslim extremists are threatening to burn down every Christian house in the community.  Several thousand Christians have fled the suburb and are in hiding, along with the family of the victim.  Mobs of over a thousand Muslims have surrounded the community and are burning tyres.

At the last account, Christian human rights workers have persuaded local Mullah's not to authorize the threatened attacks after Friday prayers.  Some went to the local police station and report the situation on the ground is very bad.  It is quite evident that the police they talked to have already assumed her guilt.  They refused to allow the workers to see the FIR, placed by a Muslim called Alsyed Muhammad Ummad.  The police were aggressive and hostile, and appear to have immediately called Muslim youths to the police station to harass the Christian workers.  The police said 'She has burned our holy book and you are here to protect her'.  It is quite clear that the police are hostile to the accused, presume her guilt and have no regard for her status as a minor or as one with Down's Syndrome.

Please pray for her and her family.

The Christian rights workers are planning to apply for bail for her immediately after the Muslim Eid celebrations currently ongoing

Source, also information from International Christian Voice on FB

Blasphemy mobs, mad behaviour

Over the last month there has been a number of cases illustrating the double or triple jeopardy faced by those accused of blasphemy.  None of them are Christians as far as we know, but their cases show the ease in which inappropriate charges are made, and the dangers of mob rule, vigilantism and of innocents being killed.
These incidents are getting so common, with so many common features, it is sometimes hard to tell whether we are dealing with an incident we've already reported on, perhaps with corrected details, or an entirely new incident.

Pakistani mob (photo AP)

DRUG ADDLED MAN LIVES IN FEAR IN PRISON AFTER QURAN DESECRATION
A Muslim man who had indulged in drugs in the past in the face of difficult circumstances now lives in fear in prison.  Every time someone comes in to his cell, he cries out 'Don't kill me', fearing it is one of the Muslim extremists who are his fellow prisoners in Karachi central jail has come to kill him, after he obeyed voices in his head telling him to 'do things'.   He was brought to the police station by concerned neighbours, and the police were dubious about his mental state.  However, mobs, stirred up by hate-spewing mullah's and religious extremists, advanced on the police station one night to try and lynch him.   They demanded the police hand him over so he could be killed.  The police have put him in a separate cell with officers standing guard to protect him from fellow inmates.  Psychiatrists say he should be examined for psychotic illness before any possible trial, with human rights activists saying the blasphemy laws don't apply to those who are mentally ill.


Source

MOB BEATS UP BLASPHEMY ACCUSED, EXTREMISTS REGISTER ACCUSATION
In another case, this time in Faisalabad, the police had to rescue a man accused of blasphemy who was being beaten and tortured by a mob.  The mob then staged a demonstration and blocked roads, demanding the man be handed over to them.  An FIR was registered by a member of Tehreek Dawat-e-Islami, an extremist organisation whose workers have been involved in several acts of terrorism over the years.  Police say the man later confessed to blasphemy.

Source

2 CHILDREN KILLED AS MOB ATTACKS POLICE STATION TO GET BLASPHEMY ACCUSED
Finally, there was a case last month in Quetta, when a mob stormed a police station to try and lynch a man - whom the police said appeared mentally retarded -  accused of blasphemy.  The man was mentally retarded, and is supposed to have burnt pages of the Koran.  The protesters were mostly Afghan refugees, who threw stones, torched vehicles and blocked the highway with burning tyres.  They chanted that the man should be stoned for blasphemy, stormed the police station and started firing.  19 were wounded by gunshots, 8 of them police officers, including the bodyguard of a senior police officer as he was hustled to safety.  The police had to resort to volleys of tear gas and gunfire to restore order, and in the melee 2 children were killed.

Source

The BPCA notes these cases and deplores them, in particular the fact that the hate-filled Mullah's and the extremist allies deem it fit to send lynch mobs after mentally ill people.  Better on judgement day to be mentally ill than morally wicked and sick.....