“Due to the threats, many Christians refused to stand as witnesses in court”, says one of the residents who filed a complaint. 11 more persons accused of blasphemy have lost their lives in the past 18 months.

The Anglican Church of Pakistan welcomes an initiative that will “pave the way for unified action on forced conversions of underage girls and misuse of the blasphemy laws”.

In the last month, mobs lynched a Muslim resident, and beat a 74-year-old Christian with stones, accusing them of breaking blasphemy laws.

The widow said her husband’s employers tortured him because they wrongly suspected he had stolen goats from their farm. He died 10 days later.

United Nations experts say Christian and Hindu girls remain particularly vulnerable to forced religious conversion, abduction, trafficking, child marriage, domestic servitude and sexual violence.

The false blasphemy charges had led to Muslims attacking Christian homes and businesses in Pakistan last year, forcing hundreds to flee.

Two brothers were abducted, beaten with iron rods and pressured to convert to Islam. “This is not the first time Christians are targeted in the area”, says a Christian leader.

A month after the attack on a Christian colony in Faisalabad, Imran, a Pakistani Christian, analyses the situation on the ground. “Churches fear a repetition”, he says.

Assailants ordered the pastor of a Presbyterian church in Kukranwala to recite the Islamic creed before shooting him.

Fifty people gathered to pray for Pakistan The Italian Evangelical Alliance asks authorities to “implement effective measures to ensure the safety of Christian minorities”.

The United Nations has designated August 22 each year as its International Day Commemorating Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. Like most such days, it gets minimal attention.

“The mobs not only burned and looted our churches and homes, they also vandalized our graveyard and the office of the assistant commissioner, who is also a Christian”, sources in Jaranwala said.

The government also agreed to establish a “Counter Blasphemy Wing”  to take action against dissemination of “blasphemous content” on the internet.

“There was no proof against him, and none of the witnesses produced by police could corroborate the blasphemy allegation against him”, said the attorney.

A Christian was arrested for  allegedly posting and sharing blasphemous images on social media. He may face death penalty.

Most Christian mission projects rely on Western support. As soon as a given nation or a critical part of a given society turns against the West, financial support will dry out or even criminalised.

The floods were caused by heavier than usual monsoon rains and melting glaciers in the northern mountainous regions that followed a severe heat wave. We need to address climate change.

Since mid-June, floods of “apocalyptic proportions” have caused overflowing waters throughout the country, leaving over 1,200 people dead and affecting 33 million.

Church leaders and rights activists cite forced conversion as the biggest challenge for vulnerable minority communities of Pakistan.

The landlord, rival shop owner, falsely accused him of disrespecting Muhammad by allegedly saying that Christ was the only “true prophet”.

The Christian brothers have been in jail since 2014, accused of creating a blog with blasphemous material, after “a shoddy investigation and evidence”, said the lawyers.

The Central Asian Consultation has become a colorful gathering of Christians from literally all ethnic groups. Uzbek mix with Karakalpak, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tadzhik, Azeri, Turkmen, Tatar and others.

The family of the 14-year-old girl denounce that a Muslim neighbor kidnapped her and they were married the day she was taken.

Afghanistan is new at the top of the Open Doors WWL 2022. Discover the full list.

The Islamic country replaces North Korea at the top of the World Watch List after 20 years. One in seven Christians worldwide suffers persecution, says Open Doors.