Cases of harrassment, torture, imprisonment, assault and religious persecution in Pakistan:

August 20, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – A custody battle in Pakistan over two Christian girls kidnapped and allegedly forced to convert to Islam remained inconclusive after a hearing today, with rights advocates for the family suspecting Muslim fundamentalists of pressuring the minors and a medical board. Click here to read more.

August 12, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Amid pressure from radical Muslim clerics, a medical board is expected to determine the age of a Christian Pakistani girl allegedly forced to convert to Islam. The medical report on 13-year-old Saba Masih, who married a Muslim man, is due by her Aug. 20 custody hearing. Click here to read more.

August 7, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Local Pakistani police declared the death of a young Christian man in May to be a suicide requiring no investigation, but a high inspector has reopened the case and taken two Muslim suspects into custody. Adeel Masih, 19, was found dead on May 4 in Hafizabad, Pakistan. His family and human rights lawyers believe the relatives of a 19-year-old Muslim woman, Kiran Irfan, with whom Masih had a one-year relationship, tortured and killed him. His family has dubbed his death an “honor killing.” Click here to read more.

July 29, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – A Pakistani court today took over supervision of two children in a custody battle that appears to hinge on their disputed conversion from Christianity to Islam. At a hearing in Multan, 200 miles southwest of Lahore, Judge Saghir Ahmed ordered Aneela and Saba Masih, 10 and 13 respectively, to be temporarily placed in a government-run women’s shelter. Click here to read more.

July 18, 2008: Christian newswire) Christians across Pakistan, numbering perhaps 10 million, are subject to violence, intimidation, torture, rape, false imprisonment, forced conversion, bonded labour, forced marriage, and child kidnapping. Christians have been forced from their homes and their places of worship have been desecrated or destroyed. Click here to read more.

July 18, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – A Pakistani couple has appealed a court decision to award custody of their two daughters, 10 and 13, to the children’s alleged kidnappers. The court based its custody decision on the girls’ conversion to Islam. Judge Main Naeem Sardar ruled Saturday (July 12) that Saba Masih, 13, and Aneela Masih, 10, had become Muslims, invalidating their Christian parents’ right to legal guardianship. “He said that because the parents are Christians and because the girls told the court that they adopted Islam, their relationship has ceased,” lawyer Rashid Rehman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan told Compass. Click here to read more.

July 11, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – A Christian father in Pakistan is in a legal battle with kidnappers for the custody of his pre-teen daughters, who allegedly have been forced to convert to Islam. Yesterday a judge in Pakistan’s Punjab province ordered further investigation into the kidnapping of Saba Younis, 12, and Aneela Younis, 10, who went missing on June 26 in the small town of Chowk Munda. The kidnappers filed for custody of the girls at the local police house on June 28, stating that the sisters had converted to Islam and their father no longer had jurisdiction over them. Click here to read more.

July 4, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Just weeks after the release of 16 Christians kidnapped by the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Islam in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, a government clampdown on extremist groups in the region has left Christians and locals fearing a backlash. On June 21, some 16 Christians were kidnapped in broad daylight in Peshawar’s affluent neighborhood of Academy Town in the North West Frontier Province. Click here to read more.

June 21, 2008: (Assist News) Unidentified gunmen kidnapped nine Pakistani Christians on Saturday in an attack on a religious gathering in the northwestern city of Peshawar. “The gunmen came in six vehicles and attacked the house where the Christian people were praying and took away at least nine people with them,” a senior police official, Imran Shahid, told Reuters reporter Faris Ali. Click here to read more.

June 13, 2008: (Asia News) A mentally disturbed Christian girl, 12, was allegedly raped by group of Muslims in Pakistan. The three are accused of attacking a twelve-year-old girl suffering from mental disturbances. Her father did not immediately report the crime because of threats; thanks to the support of Christian activists, he is now asking for justice. The girl will be cared for at a centre of religious sisters specialised in psychological illnesses. Click here to read more.

June 12, 2008: (Centre for Legal Aid) In just one month, three Christians Dr Robin Sardar, Danish Masih and Revd Frank John have been allegedly accused of blaspheming against the prophet Mohammad and of desecrating the holy Q’uran. Cases have been registered against them under section 295-C which has a mandatory death penalty. Click here to read more.

May 16, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Pakistani police have jailed a Christian doctor after “blasphemy” charges incited a mob attack on his home last week in Punjab province. Click here to read more.

May 5, 2008: (ANS) - The Chairman of All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) and Christian parliamentarian, Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti, has called on Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, and apprised him of long-standing demands of religious minorities of Pakistan in a one-to-one meeting at the Prime Minister Secretariat last week. Click here to read more.

March 7, 2008: (Compass Direct News) Karachi police announced the arrest last week of three Islamist militants who have reportedly confessed to the unsolved murders of seven Pakistani Christians in September 2002. The three suspects were captured February 26 at a hideout in Akhtar Colony in Karachi’s Korangi district, where the Sindh police said they also recovered a “substantial quantity” of weapons and explosives. Click here to read more.

February 22, 2008: (IFEX) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes statements made by leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that freedom of the media would be supported by the proposed new coalition government in Pakistan. Click here to read more.

February 19, 2008:(Compass Direct News) – A Christian doctor described receiving various death threats while kidnapped recently by Islamic extremists in an area of Pakistan reeling from extremist violence. The extremists released Dr. Zahiruddin on January 2, after kidnapping the Christian 25 days prior and demanding he renounce his faith at gunpoint. Five armed men cut off Dr. Zahiruddin and his driver as they were traveling south from the city of Bannu on December 8, the doctor said in a written account of his kidnapping. Click here to read more.

January 29, 2008: (Barnabus Fund) Threatened by murder, kidnapping and intimidation, Christians are coming under pressure both from lawlessness and from Islamic radicalism in Pakistan`s North West Frontier Province which borders Afghanistan. Most recently, on January 17th a church minister, Sajid William, was shot dead in Peshawar, the capital city of the province. Click here to read more.

January 6, 2008: Peshawar/Tank, Pakistan (ANS) -- Suspected militants associated with Commander Baitullah Mahsud on Friday kidnapped five Christians in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), Pakistan’s English Daily “The News” has reported. Click here to read more.

November 28 (Source: Compass Direct News) – Pakistani Christians have played a prominent role in the struggle against harsh emergency laws established by the country’s president this month. And many of have paid the price. Click here to read more.

October 31. 2007: (Source: Compass News Direct)"Islamic militants threatened to bomb a Christian family for refusing to convert to Islam as fighting between militants and government troops resumed in northwestern Pakistan yesterday. 'Become Muslim – otherwise, we are going to destroy your house with bombs,' an anonymous caller told a Swat Christian family last night.'" Click here to read more.

August 16, 2007: (Compass News Direct) "Christians and Hindus in northern Pakistan have received dozens of letters threatening them with death if they refuse to become Muslims, church sources and a police official said yesterday." Click here to read more.

Custody up in air over kidnapped Christians

Age contested in forced conversion of Pakistani girl

Muslim suspects arrested in "suicide" of Pakistani Christian

Pakistani court takes over supervision of Christian children in disputed conversion case

Christians across Pakistan persecuted

Pakistiani couple appeals custody decision in conversion case.

Pakistani Christian father fights for custody of young daughters who were forced to convert to Islam

Christians fear backlash following mass kidnapping in Pakistan

Nine Pakistani Christians kidnapped

Pakistani Christian girl raped

Three accused of blasphemy in Pakistan in one month

Christian doctor arrested in Pakistan - accused of blasphemy

Pakistan's religious minorities seeking more freedom

Arrests in 6-year-old murder case

Christians near Afghanistan border under increasing pressure.

Five Christians kidnapped

Pakistani Christians Struggle against harsh laws.

Pakistanis under pressure to convert to Islam