Tag: Joseph Colony

Youhanabad dead remembered as Pakistan Senate wants terrorism charges dropped

March 19, 2018 Pakistan Islamic extremism, Joseph Colony, Lahore, Pakistan, Taliban, Youhanabad

A candlelit vigil on March 17, 2015, to commemorate those killed in suicide attacks on the Roman Catholic Church and Christ Church in Lahore's Youhanabad area. (Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Hundreds attended a commemoration service on Thursday, 15 March, for those killed and injured in the 2015 Easter suicide attacks on two churches in Youhanabad – the main Christian district in Lahore, Pakistan. The twin suicide bombings, which killed 17 and injured another 80, were claimed by a splinter group . . . Read More

Pakistan Christian still on death row, five years after his ‘blasphemy’ sparked Joseph Colony attack

March 15, 2018 Pakistan Blasphemy, Faisalabad, Joseph Colony, Lahore, Pakistan, Sahiwal, Sawan Masih

At the fifth anniversary of the arson attack on a Christian neighbourhood in the Pakistani city of Lahore, the mother of the Christian man convicted of blaspheming against Islam – and so provoking the attack – says she still prays for his release. Sawan Masih*, a 30-year-old sanitation worker, was accused . . . Read More

Could Pakistan’s place on US ‘Watch List’ create more problems for minorities?

January 11, 2018 Pakistan Afghanistan, Donald Trump, Human rights, Joseph Colony, Minorities, Multan, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Taliban, USA

The US State Department last week placed Pakistan on a ‘Special Watch List’ for “severe violations of religious freedom”. The US did not, however, go as far as adding it to its ten ‘Countries of Particular Concern’* – for countries where “governments have engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and . . . Read More

Blasphemy laws violate human rights in 1/3 nations – USCIRF

August 15, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Blasphemy, Gojra, Iran, Joseph Colony, Lahore, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, Yemen

Over a third of the world’s countries have blasphemy laws that violate at least one internationally recognised human rights principle, according to a new report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Most blasphemy laws are “embedded in criminal codes” and are “vaguely worded”, with “unduly harsh penalties . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians in Thailand face renewed pressure to return home

March 13, 2017 Asylum seekers, Badami Bagh, Bangkok, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Migrants, Netherlands, Pakistan, Refugees, Thailand, UK, UN

World Watch Monitor has heard from reliable sources that the Thai government is planning to cancel bail for all male asylum seekers in Bangkok. The move would require them to return to detention centres straight away. This would include many of the estimated 11,500 Pakistani Christians who complained in 2016 . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians ‘attacked’ as land dispute escalates

February 10, 2017 Pakistan Caste, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Lahore, Minorities, Narowal, Pakistan, Punjab, Rimsha Masih

More than 200 men, some armed with sticks, suddenly gathered on Wednesday morning (8 Feb) beside the Alba Presbyterian Church in Sankhatra, 115km north of Lahore, intent on building a boundary wall. “Children were going to school and men were leaving for work when this large number stormed into the . . . Read More

Pakistan court acquits all suspects in 2013 arson of Christian neighbourhood

January 31, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Lahore, Punjab, Sawan Masih, Sweepers

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday (28 Jan) acquitted every one of the more than 100 suspects accused of ransacking, looting and then burning a Christian neighbourhood in Lahore in March 2013. Pakistani Christians gather outside the Joseph Colony in Lahore on 10 March 2013, the day after more than . . . Read More

Pakistan court grants bail to chief suspect in oven killings of Christian couple

April 19, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Kasur, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

A Pakistani court has granted bail to the lead suspect in the brutal 2014 killings of a young Christian couple, burned alive in a brick kiln where they worked as bonded labourers, itself illegal in Pakistan. National outrage over their deaths meant the case had moved to Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Court . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians face eviction from Islamabad slums

December 28, 2015 Pakistan Faisalabad, Gojra, Islamabad, Joseph Colony, Kasur, Katchi abadis, Narowal, Rimsha Masih, Sahiwal, Sheikhupura, Sialkot

Over 1000 “katchi abadi” residents gather outside the National Press Club in April 2014 to protest against plans to demolish 12 Islamabad slums.Dawn Christians in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, are facing eviction from their homes, after the Capital Development Authority went to the country’s highest court to request the . . . Read More

Pakistan: 23 unreported ‘blasphemy’ cases in 2 years

September 29, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Joseph Colony, Kasur, Pakistan, Pakistan Ulema Council, Punjab, Sheikhupura

Since 2013, the All Pakistan Ulema Council (APUC) has intervened in 23 incidents involving Christians accused of blasphemy, preventing them from becoming major incidents, according to Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, the APUC Chairman. (The APUC, a representative group of senior Muslim clerics, is very influential in Pakistani public life.) It . . . Read More

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