On Monday 31^st January the funeral rites of Pastor William Siraj who was shot dead in a terrorist attack, were performed at All Saints Church, Peshawar.

Thousands of Christians from around the county attended his funeral.

Pastor William was buried in Wazir Baag Graveyard Peshawar.  

Read more (here)

On 27^th January 2022, BACA arranged a larger than normal distribution of food packages among Pakistani Christian asylum seekers in Thailand, thanks to generous donations from our supporters.   There are several thousand Pak-Christian asylum seekers in Thailand all of whom are treated as illegal immigrants, even though a large percentage have either UNHCR registration as an official asylum seeker or refugee.

Pastor William Siraj and Pastor Patrick Naeem were shot at by gunmen on two motorcycles while driving home after a service At All Saints Church, Peshawar, yesterday.  Read more (here).

All Saints Church also witnessed a terrorist attack in 2013 and BACA were actively involved in bringing comfort and solace to over a 100 families at the time.  Read more (here) and (here).

Video of funeral ceremony for Pastor William Siraj

On Sunday 30th January 2022, Pastor William and his assistant Pastor Naeem finished their church service, locked their building and  headed homeward to Kohati, where pastor William Siraj lives.

Read full account (here)

Hannah Chowdhry, Communications Officer for British Asian Christian Association, visited All Saints Church in Wolverhampton, to share an update on BACA’s work in Pakistan.

Whereas, previous talks with the Asian Christian Church led by Pastor Teerth Sond has been filled with tragedy and pain, on this occasion Hannah shared updates on positives that have occurred since our last visit.

Hannah started with a full report on freedom for former blasphemy convict Asia Bibi, who escaped a 9 year brutal captivity in a Pakistani prison cell, on All Hallows Day  2018 (31st October 2018).

A Pastor who has travelling home after leading a church service at Church in Peshawar was shot dead in an attack on Sunday 30th January 2022.

A pastoral assistant who was also shot in the same attack survived with minor injuries and was treated in Lady Reading Hospital, before being discharged.  This is the same hospital that treated victims of the twin suicide bombing in Peshawar in 2013 (click here).

Image: Father Yunas Masih (65 yrs), BACA officer and Mother Shareefa Bibi (62 yrs) after the pleasing guilty verdict of their son’s murders.

British Asian Christian Association, have successfully supported another Christian family through a difficult murder case despite dozens of court postponements.

The parents of a young Christian man who just before dying, told his parents he was raped by two Muslim friends and then had a high pressure air nozzle shoved into his anus, have expressed their satisfaction at a court decision on 25th January to impose life sentences on both murderers.

Image of Nawab Bibi outside Adiala Jail, Rawlpindi, with the regular goods that British Asian Christian Association has been providing for Zafar Bhatti.

Fears that Zafar Bhatti (55 yrs), Pakistan’s longest serving blasphemy convict could be the first ever to be lynched heightened after a judge increased his sentence from life imprisonment to death on 3rd January 2022 (click here)

Judge Sahibzada Naqeeb Shehzad, of Sessions Court Rawalpindi made this ruling despite clear physical and electronic evidence of the innocence of Zafar Bhatti. 

No forensic evidence exists for any blasphemy by Zafar Bhatti, in fact every piece evidence suggests he is innocent.  Zafar Bhatti however was convicted based on an unsubstantiated report declaring his guilt, made by police in the early stages of their investigation.

DofE volunteer Naomi Chowdhry helping one of our regular visitors receive some food.

We have had a very difficult period trying to run our homeless centre while our main volunteer Rajeshri Chouhan has been off recovering from a very severe bout of COVID-19.

Rajeshri had been double vaccinated but was hit hard by the virus after spending time with her sister for Christmas.

Read full account (here)

British Asian Christian Association continues to collect and send unwanted clothes, toys, household goods and other useful items to deprived families in Pakistan.  We are able to collect items from any home in London as long as they are willing to pay the cost of fuel for our driver to travel from Ilford to your home, office or other venue.

We can only collect items that are reusable, clean, operational and of value to the families that we support.  In Pakistan we work with several churches in Lahore to ensure that needy families are aware of how and where to collect items.  Registered families are placed on a cycle to maximize the number of people needing support who have access to the service.

Image:  Shabir Masih now lives alone.

A trivial dispute over the right for sewage water to travel past a Muslim shrine, resulted in the killing of a young Christian man and his mother.  Read more (here)

In October 2021 almost a year after the murder of Usman Masih RIP (25 yrs) and Yasmeen Bibi RIP (55 yrs), the killer Hasan Shakoor Butt was sentenced to death, however his mother Ishrat Bibi was shown leniency for her age, despite having begun the argument and calling for her son to murder Usman and Yasmeen.  Read more (here)

Shabir Masih widower of Yasmeen is now seeking a review of the decision to exonerate Ishrat Bibi, as he comes to terms with having lost his whole family in one devastating day.

BACA wrote to our supporters just before Christmas and explained how the orphans of Shama and Shahzad a Christian couple burned alive in a brick kiln, were seeking two laptops to help with their education.  Read more (here)

BACA have remained very much a part of this families life from the beginning of the childrens’ troubled life without their parents.

Our live-in-nanny funded through your donations has ensured the three children have had a maternal figure in their lives and they love her to bits.  Our officers regularly visit the family to make sure they are growing strong as a unit and individuals. When concerns were raised about missed on-line school lessons due to a lack of computers, by both the children and their grandfather Mukhtar Masih, we wanted to meet their need.  Suleman tried to attend some classes by using a smart phone belonging to his cousin but it was not always available.  For a child that loves to learn and is excelling at his school this was quite painful.

We wanted to purchase new computers for them, knowing full well the second-hand systems on sale in Pakistan are often fraught with problems.  Moreover, our purchases come with a two year warranty and free support during the warranty period, which the family will find useful.  Of course, new computers cost a lot and we had to trust God that we could raise the finance for a successful project end.

A deadly blizzard that caused several avalanches, the likes of which has not been seen in 30 years in Pakistan, killed at least 22 people, including a family of 5 and a family 8.

On Friday 7th January 5ft of snow fell down in Murree a popular tourist location to the North East of Pakistan.

Pre-notification of large snow fall on Pakistan’s media led to an above average number of visits to famous town.  Local parking areas designed by the British in the 1800’s were  sufficient for for up to 5000 cars, but over 100,000 vehicles turned up.

Image of Aleeza Ashiq Masih with her family.  She is now 5 years old and her growth rate is more pronounced meaning she requires two limb upgrades each year.

20 families celebrated Christmas in secret in a Bangkok condo by hiring a room as a hall for their worship thanks to donations provided by our donors.

Visitors were given a hearty meal cooked by a Pak-Christian chef who received a donation that would help his family survive the hard economic conditions.

All 20 families received a large bag of food supplies that should provide a months sustenance for their families.

The mother of a murdered 10 year old who we supported for two years died of grief from being coerced into a compromise agreement for her murdered son.

Badil Masih was sodomised and murdered by his employer Mr Mohammed Ikram and a cohort, in July 2019, for daring to seek full payment for work he had carried out at a scrapyard (click here).

British Asian Christian Association stepped in to pay for legal costs, and support the family financially as they challenged for justice.  Despite clear evidence of a crime courts offered pre-arrest bail to the murderers who began to threaten the Christian family and key witnesses (click here).

Though Badil’s mother  Shareefa remained stoic throughout the court process.  The witnesses were nobbled by the murderers and their cohorts.  The witnesses refused to testify and threatened to alter their statement if Shareefa continued to pursue justice.  It is not known whether they succumbed to bribes, threats or both (click here).

In tandem with the ignominy of losing witnesses Shareefa suffered intensified threats of the murder of her remaining son. Unbeknown to British Asian Christian Association or our solicitor, Shareefa met in private with the opponent solicitor  and agreed compensation terms for the murder of her son (click here).

Shareefa Bibi (32 yrs at the time) was  earning 3500 Pak-rupees every month working as a housemaid and was finding it difficult to meet the needs of her family.

Badil Masih (10 yrs) was a caring and pragmatic child.  he took up work clearing a scrapyard for a wealthy Muslim businessman in July 2019 during his school summer holidays, to help the family sustain their rent and daily need for food.  At first his mother refused to let him work but Badil insisted and without a father figure in he home Shareefa acquiesced. It should be noted that Badil’s father some years earlier had left the home through depression and a severe drug-habit.

Video of Shareefa Bibi in 2019 explaining about the day her son was killed.

Badil worked extraordinary hours starting at 9am and not finishing till earliest 6pm.  The work was arduous and Badil complained about tiredness but really wanted to help his family.  Though Shareefa insisted he spend the money on himself he declined and used the money towards groceries and household needs.  From all accounts, he was a loving, caring child who never missed church despite his difficult employment.

Badil was not paid his full wages and took this matter up with his employers.  That same day he was sodomised, beaten and then left unconscious at his mothers doorstep.  His younger brother Soojal aka Moon saw the chase and heard some of the beating as he was helping his brother that day.  Read more (here)

British Asian Christian Association stepped in to pay for the funeral of Badil, we also supported the family financially and began a legal pursuit for justice.

Phenomenal court delays coupled with pre-arrest bails for murderers that are inexorably granted when a Muslim is a defendant against a Christian, led to the loss of key witnesses.  An increasingly bleak looking prospect of success with the murder trial shook Shareefa to the core.  By now she was exhibiting signs of deep depression, anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

In March 2021, Shareefa called British Asian Christian Association, in the time between court hearings and told us she had agreed compromise terms with the murderers of her son. At the time the agreement had allowed for 3.5 Lakh Pak-rupees (300,000 Pak-rupees equivalent to £1282) and a small 1.5 Marla (25 metres squared) plot of land.  Shareefa advised us that she had already made a statement in court exonerating the murderers through Pakistan’s Qisas and Diyat laws (click here).  These are Islamic laws set in the Koran (otherwise known as Sharia Law) that allow wealthy Muslims to subvert convictions for murder and rape pay paying a compromise bribe. At the time Shareefa Bibi, said:

“In the court the witnesses refused to accept that they had seen the murderers beat the head of Badil with a metal rod.

Mr Akram and his cohorts have been bullying me to accept, they said they would kill my remaining son Moon if I did not accept their offer.

“The murderers were telling me that they were wealthy and would win in court, that I would then be made to pay.

“Police forensics failed to implicate the murderers – I was left with no option.

“I went to the meet the solicitor on my own, though I was scared the whole time that they would kill me.

“I just wanted Moon to be safe and to have a better life.

“I am so sick and depressed now.

“I feel I have betrayed Badil but Moon is still alive and I could not take another death.”