Efforts to curb abuse of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws suffered a major setback on Thursday (July 24) when judges suspended a prior court order to form a commission to investigate misuse of the harsh laws, sources said.
Relatives of a Muslim in Pakistan who raped a 14-year-old Christian girl are threatening her family to compel them to drop charges, sources said.
Police in Pakistan on Saturday (July 19) arrested and charged a 60-year-old Catholic with blasphemy after he accused a Muslim shopkeeper of overcharging, sources said. Amir Peter of Nishat Colony in Lahore, capital of Punjab Province, was charged under Section 295-C of the country’s controversial blasphemy laws pertaining to disrespect of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad – punishable with death – on the complaint of Sanor Ali.
As terrorism-scarred Christians in Nigeria await help from the government and the international community, within and outside of the country they prayed for God’s intervention this month.
In what attorneys in Pakistan termed a “huge ray of hope,” a federal high court on Tuesday (July 15) directed the government to form an inquiry commission within 30 days to investigate blatant abuse of blasphemy laws.
Police in Pakistan delayed registering a complaint by a Catholic woman gang-raped by three Muslims in front of her 3-year-old daughter and are pressuring her to withdraw the case, she said.
Fulani herdsmen on Friday (July 11) killed five Christians and wounded three others an area of northwest Nigeria’s Kaduna state where at least 110 others have been kidnapped in the past six months, sources said.
A judge on Wednesday (July 9) handed a life sentence to a Muslim found guilty of abducting and raping a Christian girl but ignored accusations of forcible conversion and fraudulent marriage, the victim’s attorney said.
Fulani herdsmen attacked two villages in Kaduna state, Nigeria on Monday (July 7), killing two Christians and wounding three others, after terrorizing villagers in another area in June, local residents said.
During an evening worship service on Monday (July 7), suspected Islamic extremists gunned down a Baptist pastor and another worshipper and kidnapped a woman in Katsina state, northwest Nigeria.
A court on Tuesday (July 8) acquitted two Christian youths of a false blasphemy charge rooted in a minor dispute, their lawyer said.
In a significant development, a court in Pakistan refused to hand custody of a Catholic girl to a Muslim who abducted and forcibly converted/married her, noting that as a minor she could not go with him even if she said she was willing to do so, sources said.
