Crime
Christian in Pakistan Receives Death Sentence for Decade Old Blasphemy Accusation

Pakistan – According to Christian Today, a Christian man in Pakistan has been sentenced to death for allegedly committing blasphemy almost a decade after he was accused. Advocates for the man claim the charges against their client are false and another example of how Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws are abused.
Zafar Bhatti, age 58, was accused of sending blasphemous test messages from his phone and arrested in July 2012. Bhatti was reportedly tortured by police into a confession.
Multiple reports prove another person, Ghazala Khan, owned the number that sent the text messages. Despite these reports, Bhatti was sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s Penal Code in May 2017.
In October 2021, Bhatti’s case was sent back to the trial court by the Lahore High Court. Recently, Bhatti’s sentence was revised by the Session Court of Rawalpindi from a life sentence to a death sentence, the mandatory punishment for those convicted of blasphemy under Section 295-C.
Nasir Saeed, Director of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, claims Bhatti is another victim of Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws.
“Since the promulgation of the blasphemy law in Pakistan, the law is oppressive and frequently misused,” Saeed told Christian Today. “The situation continues to deteriorate, and minorities are living under constant threat as the government has failed to protect religious minorities in the last years.”
“Provisions have been used as tools of revenge in personal conflicts, to target religious minorities and to oppress political opponents or critical voices,” Saeed continued. “In the recent year several blasphemy cases have been registered against Hindu, Christians, and even against Muslims, on mere suspicion.”
Sources:persecution
Crime
Muslim Relatives Kill Pastor for His Faith

Muslim relatives of a pastor in eastern Uganda took him from his home and killed him for his faith this month, sources said.
Pastor Adinani Bulwa had fled Muslim opposition in northern Uganda and returned home to Muterere village, Bugiri District in January before he was killed on March 10. He was 42.
We began preaching to the family members, and in early February four Muslim relatives got converted to Christianity, but the first-born son in the family [Pastor Bulwa’s brother] resisted the Christian faith and gave a warning that we should stop misleading Muslims to Christianity,” said the pastor’s wife, Zabiina Newumbwe. “Two weeks later my husband was invited to attend a family meeting [at his parents’ house], where he was pressured to recant the Christian faith, but he said he was ready to die for Christ’s sake.”
On March 10 at about 9:30 p.m., several Muslim relatives arrived at their home, furious and shouting, she said.
“They were saying, ‘We are a Muslim family, and Allah is our God,’” Newumbwe told Morning Star News. “We were shaken, and the children and I hid ourselves in the bedroom while leaving my husband at the sitting room.”
The group forced their way inside and forced Pastor Bulwa outside, she said.
“About 200 meters away from the homestead, we heard a loud wailing,” she said. “We remained inside the house. My husband did not return. Early in the morning, I went to see a Christian neighbor who accompanied me to the scene of the incident only to see my husband at a distance half naked. I could not control my emotions and shouted in a loud voice. Thereafter I fainted due to shock.”
Pastor Bulwa’s body was found with a deep cut on the forehead, a cloth around his neck indicating he had been strangled and cuts on the left foot.
Hundreds of Christians and others arrived at the site, and the pastor’s family hurriedly buried his body. Family members told Newumbwe she would also be killed if she named those who killed her husband, she said.
Besides the widow, the pastor leaves behind five children, ages 4 to 16.
In 2016, Pastor Bulwa had moved his family to Lira, in the Northern Region of Uganda, where he ran a successful business, principally maize production. On Jan. 24, 2019, the family secretly converted from Islam to Christianity, and he was appointed pastor to other former Muslims at his church.
The converts from Islam under his pastoral guidance gathered secretly, but last December Muslims saw Pastor Bulwa and his family outside the church site in Lira, and word spread that he had become a Christian.
“Since December 2022, the Muslims started threatening to kill us if we continued missing attending the mosque,” Newumbwe said. “As the threats continued escalating, my husband decided that we leave Lira back to our home in Muterere village.”
The family fled Lira in January and began an evening fellowship at their home in Muterere, she said.
Since Pastor Bulwa’s death, she and her children have left their home and taken refuge at the house of someone assisting them.
“The children and I are living in great fear from the relatives – our security is at stake,” Newumbwe said. “We had to seek help elsewhere. We need prayers so that God may guide us on what to do next.”
The assault was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.
Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.
Sources:christiannews
Crime
17 Christians Killed by Militants in Nigeria’s Southern Kaduna

Nigeria– Muslim militants recently killed 17 unarmed Christians in the Ungwan Wakili community in the Zangon Kataf LGA of Nigeria’s Kaduna State. Kaduna is in the country’s dangerous Middle Belt region, where militants have attacked Christian communities for years. Though there are several reasons for the violence, one major motivation for the militants appears to be religious animosity, given its grossly disproportional targeting of Christian communities over the years.
In the most recent attack, the militants came at night using sophisticated weapons. A local ICC staffer reviewed pictures of 14 lifeless victims on the ground in Ungwan Wakili. Three more died of their wounds in the hospital, a community leader told ICC.
Local government officials said they will investigate the attack, accusing the military of allowing the attack despite the presence of military checkpoints nearby. Policing in Nigeria is directed by federal rather than local authorities. The militants have been attacking Christians in southern Kaduna and destroying their crops in recent months.
The governor of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai, has a long history of allowing attacks on Christian communities and punishing Christian communities who protest the security situation in the area. Since taking office as Governor of Kaduna State in May 2015, El-Rufai has repeatedly endangered Christian communities by ordering them into strict lockdowns. These lockdown orders, which trap villagers in their homes, prevent villagers from organizing early warning systems and make militant attacks even more deadly as villagers no longer have the warning they need to flee impending attacks.
Despite international condemnation of these lockdown orders, El-Rufai has continued to punish Christians through this technique. In 2020, he locked down a Christian-majority agricultural area for over two months during planting season. Militants, taking advantage of his lockdown orders, killed more than 100 Christian villagers during that time.
Sources:persecution
Crime
ഹെയ്തിയിൽ വീണ്ടും കത്തോലിക്ക മിഷ്ണറി വൈദികനെ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോയി

പോർട്ട്-ഓ-പ്രിൻസ്: കരീബിയൻ രാജ്യമായ ഹെയ്തിയിൽ കത്തോലിക്ക വൈദികനെ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോയി. പോർട്ട്-ഓ-പ്രിൻസിലെ ക്രോയിക്സ് ഡെസ് ബൊക്കെറ്റ് എന്ന പ്രദേശത്ത് നിന്നാണ് ഫാ. ജീൻ-യെവ്സ് മെഡിഡോര് എന്ന മിഷ്ണറി വൈദികനെ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോയത്. 1831-ല് സ്ഥാപിതമായ ക്ലെറിക്സ് ഓഫ് സെന്റ് വിയേറ്റര് സന്യാസ സമൂഹാംഗമായ വൈദികനെ മാർച്ച് 10 വെള്ളിയാഴ്ചയാണ് അക്രമികള് തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോയതെന്ന് പ്രാദേശിക മാധ്യമങ്ങള് റിപ്പോര്ട്ട് ചെയ്യുന്നു. വൈദികനെ കാറിൽ കയറ്റി ആയുധധാരി സംഘം തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോകുകയായിരിന്നുവെന്നാണ് വിവരം. പോർട്ട്-ഓ-പ്രിൻസിന്റെ പ്രാന്തപ്രദേശമായ ക്രോയിക്സ് ഡെസ് ബൊക്കെറ്റ്, തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോകല് നടത്തുന്ന 400 മാവോസോ എന്ന സായുധ സംഘത്തിന്റെ നിയന്ത്രണത്തിലാണ്.
വേദനാജനകമാണെന്നും വൈദികന്റെ മോചനത്തിനായി പ്രാര്ത്ഥന അഭ്യര്ത്ഥിക്കുന്നതായും ക്ലെറിക്സ് ഓഫ് സെന്റ് വിയേറ്റര് സന്യാസ സമൂഹം പ്രസ്താവിച്ചു. നേരത്തെ ഹെയ്തിയില് ക്ലരീഷ്യൻ മിഷ്ണറി വൈദികനെ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടു പോയി അദ്ദേഹം മോചിതനായി ദിവസങ്ങള് പിന്നിടും മുന്പാണ് മറ്റൊരു വൈദികനെ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടു പോയിരിക്കുന്നത്. കഴിഞ്ഞ ഏതാനും വര്ഷങ്ങളായി സായുധ സംഘട്ടനങ്ങളാലും സാമ്പത്തികവും, സാമൂഹ്യപരവുമായ പ്രശ്നങ്ങളാലും നട്ടം തിരിയുന്ന ഒരു രാജ്യമാണ് ഹെയ്തി. അപ്രതീക്ഷിതമായ അക്രമങ്ങള് കാരണം രാജ്യത്ത് അരക്ഷിതാവസ്ഥയും, ക്ഷാമവും, ദാരിദ്ര്യവും കൊള്ളയും കൊലപാതകവും പതിവു സംഭവങ്ങളാണ്.
കടപ്പാട് :പ്രവാചക ശബ്ദം
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