Two murders of Christians: "Isolated cases, but the pressure on believers is strong"

ASIA/PAKISTAN - 

Lahore (Agenzia Fides) - A Catholic child killed in Faisalabad, a Christian farmer killed in Kasur: Punjab, the province that is the heart of economic, social and cultural life of Pakistan, confirms being the "prohibitive land" for the Christian community. 

In the town of Faisalabad, the corpse of a Catholic child, the 14-year-old Sunil Masih, an orphan, was found by the police on August 21 with the body horribly mutilated and some organs removed. The child had disappeared two days before from the orphanage, when he went to the market. This is confirmed to Fides by Fr. Khalid Rashid Asi, general Vicar of the diocese of Faisalabad and President of the Diocesan Commission for the young. Fr. Asi expresses "outrage, sadness and pain of the whole local community," calling for justice. According to investigators, the case could be linked to organ trafficking.
In another incident, on August 22 a Christian farmer was killed in Kasur, also in Punjab, six other Christians were seriously injured and are in hospital, following an attack by a group of Muslims. The attack was motivated by "land grabbing" (ownership of land), the attempt to rescue 40 apterous of arable land from Christian peasants, vulnerable and defenseless. Local Christians have complained to the police and ask for the arrest of the culprits. As reported to Fides by Pastor Mustaq Gill, head of the NGO LEAD ("Legal Evangelical Association Development")," such cases are frequent, especially to the detriment of the faithful who have land in the fertile plains of Punjab. Often Christians are driven out and the guilty go unpunished." LEAD tries to defend their rights.

Khalid Rashid Asi notes that "violence like these are isolated cases, but the pressure on Christians in Pakistan remains strong and the faithful have to struggle to see their guaranteed rights." (PA) (Agenzia Fides 23/08/2012)