Christian enclave near starvation in Pak-floods for 5 days given food by BACA/Saif ul-Malook appointed for Zafar Bhatti
Published: Wed, 08/31/22
As you receive this email millions of Pakistani's have been displaced from their homes, over 1100 have been killed and 100,000 homes have been devastated by the huge deluge in Pakistan. Read more (here)
Climate change has been blamed for the floods and to some extent this is true - Pakistan certainly had an unusually long and sweltering summer. But they have had floods before and some of them have been worse. What has not changed is the woeful response from the government nor their inability to improve infrastructure. For now we call on Christians to pray for Pakistan for a ceasing of the rain that has made life unbearable for so many families, and for improved governance in a
nation that desperately needs it.
We also call for support for our relief programme that has already provided much needed food to 60 families both Christian and Hindu, who had been totally neglected by rescue services. Read more and watch videos (here).
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2
With your help we can purchase tents, sleeping bags and sanitary items for beleaguered families, we also hope to get a medical camp set up soon to help prevent more deaths through waterborne and other diseases, that inevitably spread and infect during such catastrophes. Our long term ambition will be to replace destroyed mud houses in brick, like we did in Bikiwind Kasur back in 2015, through the help of a Canadian donor. You can donate towards this work (here). We will be getting a report back from Bikiwind resident to share with you all to see how they fared since the installation of brick homes in our next newsletter. Our flood appeal is one of our largest ever appeals to meet a great need, please share this with others who you believe would like to support it.
UK News:
In the UK, we have continued our work supporting homeless people, refugees and economically deprived communities with food, clothes, sanitary items and other necessities. The numbers of people using our service have increased and we believe this is due to our improved outreach. Read more (here)
One of our volunteers Naomi Chowdhry won a Jack Petchey Award for committing 3 hours a week to working at our project on Fridays. Naomi also secured the gift of a tablet that will help homeless people communicate with lost friends and family, help them find work and also to respond to a host of services to improve their quality of life. Read more (here).
Pakistan news:
A Christian mother has had to face the pain and ignominy of having her daughter kidnapped by a Muslim man she and her husband treated like a son. Muqadas (15 yrs) has still not been returned to her home and a sham Islamic marriage certificate has been produced with conversion papers, that will make it very difficult for the family to retrieve their daughter. Read more (here).The family have asked BACA to help with legal advocacy which will cost us around £1500. If you would like to help this family you can donate (here).
In a diabolical turn of events the father of a man who killed a Christian mother and her son, has now stolen land belonging to the hapless father who had wanted to save that for his grandchildren. The land has been stolen in an attempt to thwart justice and force the surviving widower into permitting release of the murder on acceptance of a bribe. The murderer did not think twice when he shot dead 'dirty Christians' because water from their land passed by a Muslim shrine creating a
ritual impurity for the area, and Shabir Masih will not cave in to these demands. Shabir Masih now lives alone and is very broken by what happened but is still pursuing justice against the accomplices who stirred the murderer, as he believes they are jointly responsible for the deaths. Read more (here). Through a former beneficiary we are supporting Mr Masih with £50 per month as he is too
frail to work and has lost his only son who cared for him.We would like to help Shabir with a stronger monthly support package and if you would like to help you can donate (here).
It is not all doom and gloom and we celebrate with you the successful implementation of a new prosthetic limb for Aleeza Masih (5 yrs), who was famously the youngest survivor of the dreadful Quetta Bomb attack when aged 1.5 years. Please read more and watch some very joyful videos (here).
We are very pleased to announce that a deposit has been paid and that Saif-ul-Malook has now been appointed as the new legal advocate for Zafar Bhatti. Zafar is the longest serving blasphemy convict under Pakistan's notorious blasphemy laws and Saif-ul-Mallok the greatest ever advocate for challenging these infamous laws. We pray that Mr Malook can emancipate brother Zafar expediently as he and Nawab have already paid such a heavy toll. Read more (here).
Ukraine News:
War rages on in Ukraine, the threat of a nuclear disaster looms over the globe with shelling close to several power stations and already tens of thousands of lives have been lost and millions displaced. Even then Pastor Vasilev continues to provide food to economically shattered families, whilst also sharing the Gospel on the streets and holding 3 church services. We continue to sponsor his work with a fund of £500 a month and hope that more of you will support us as we ensure the
Gospel continues to be shared in war torn Odessa. Read more (here) You can donate towards this work (here).
We have noticed a reduction in our donations over the last few months since the worlds economy has taken a turn for the worse. This has limited progress but we have been able to fulfil most of our regular work. We continue to strive to help every Christian that comes to us with a need and have placed some important work on hold. We still need to raise a further £500 for the new solicitor appointed for Zafar Bhatti this month. Our help for Ukraine as the
Pastor Vasilev's church continue to be a beacon of hope for many brave people but we need regular contributors for this fund to continue it. Please pray for this situation and if you feel called to give a donation for the first time or one that is larger than previous ones, we thank you. You can donate (here) if you are moved to do so.
We are still seeking more help from supporters who are willing to help us with writing articles. We need commitments from people that can spare the time to write and research and have passion for the work that we do. If you are interested please email juliet@britishasianchristians.org or call 020 8500 1192.
We are seeking old computers and mobile phones that are no longer required to share with deprived communities in Pakistan and India. If you have items that you would like to donate please contact us as we are able to collect them from location within or around London. If you have items you'd like to donate please email juliet@britishasianchristians.org or call 020 8500 1192. You can alternatively post them to British Asian Christian Association, Unit
74934, PO Box 6945, London, W1A 6US.
I have passed my A levels and will be attending a university in Scotland where I will begin a degree in Law. I want to thank all of you who have been praying for me.
Blessings
Hannah Chowdhry
We include a list of all the articles mentioned above in date order, feel free to read only those that interest you. If any of the links above and below do not work you can read all our international articles (here) and all our local UK community news (here).
Christian enclave of 30 families receive food after near starvation for 5 days.
Heavy rainfall has killed over 1000 people and destroyed over 100,000 homes in Pakistan.
Christians have historically told by Muslim charities that aid can only be received if they convert to Islam.
One Christian village in which many mud homes were completely destroyed received no aid from the Government or local Muslim Charities. Villagers believe this is because there are no Muslims living in the area.
BACA has begun a food programme and has already given two weeks food supply to 30 Muslim and 30 Hindu families. More support is desperately needed.
Pakistan has been suffering from a heavier than usual torrential rainfall during the monsoon season this year which started in July. It is believed that climate change has contributed to the scale of the inundation this year – which has shocked Pak-meteorological experts. Over a thousand deaths and over one hundred thousand properties lost paint a bleak picture of the impact of this years floods.
For over two years British Asian Christian Association have been providing free meals for homeless people, the economically deprived and refugees and asylum-seekers. Our work began after Trustees became acutely aware of the growing homeless community in Ilford during a series of outreach events in Ilford Town Centre (click
here).
You can read a full review of our ‘Meals for the Needy’ project and watch videos (here). It includes an account of how we grew the service by meeting the homeless on the streets were they took shelter.
The current economic climate has resulted in a huge increase in the number of people who attend our service. Our fuel and food costs are increasing and we need you support to enable us to continue the project and to expand. We need larger food supplies and would like to purchase a fully electric vehicle. If you would like to support this work please donate (here).
Recently we shared details of the celebration we held for Redbridge’s homeless during the Queens Jubilee celebrations (click here).
We also informed you of our young volunteer who won a tablet that will be used to help homeless people reconnect with their loved ones, or help them to find work (click here).
During the warm summer we have had this year, a decision was made to move our meals for the needy project out into the open. We did this because it increased visibility of our project as we wanted to reach more homeless people.
Image of Muqadas taken recently this year while 15 years old.
A Christian girl was abducted from her home on 17th July 2022 from the village of Haloki in Kasur.
Later it was discovered that Muqadas Labha (15 yrs) was abducted by Muhammad Naveed (35 yrs) from Okara district, 150km away. He had an accomplice name Muhammad Babar (32 yrs) who was also from the same village as Muqadas – Haloki.
Mr Naveed now claims the 15 year old child willingly eloped and has now converted to Islam, a ploy frequently used by Muslims to capture vulnerable Christian girls.
The war between Russia and Ukraine continues on with severe ferocity. Little has come from attempted negotiations barring an agreement to secure safety for grain transport from the port of Odessa. An agreement that was broken by the Russians on the day after it was ratified, when they targeted the port with missiles (click here). An act which
questions Russia’s credibility and commitment to the agreement that had been brokered by the UN and Turkey. Since that attack however no further attacks have been made and grain exports are being made to help reduce the global grain crises that has impacted significantly in some African and Asian Nations. President Zelenskyy of Ukraine has even permitted travel for sailors to ensure recruitment for merchant vessels is sufficient to meet demand. Previously no males were
permitted to leave the country.
The New York Times estimates that 45,000 Russian troops have already perished in this war whereas 9000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed as a consequence of the war. Though figures of up to 80,000 Russian troops having left the field of war being estimated by British Defence Minister Ben Wallace, including deaths, Injuries and dissertions. Civilian deaths in Ukraine have been estimated at 5587 by the UN but they say the figures could in reality be much higher.
Aleeza has a cast made for her latest prosthetic leg.
On 18th July 2022, we appealed for donations to cover costs for a new prosthetic leg for Aleeza Masih. Aleeza is enetering a period of growth that means she now requires a replacement prosthetic leg every 6 months or she will feel excessive pain.
Ashiq Masih (52 yrs) her father was hoping to have the leg replaced before Aleeza restarted her learning at “Excellence English Medium School”, where mobility is n
A BACA officer with Saif Ul Malook Pakistan's most successful blasphemy law advocate.
Please sign and share widely our petition for Zafar Bhatti (here)
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 of physical and electronic 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. During that investigation Zafar Bhatti states he was coerced into a false investigation under a brutal police interrogation. Read time line (here)
Shabir Masih prays daily at the church next to his home. He remains a devout Christian and that is what fills him with hope.
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.
On 7th July 2022, BACA team paid a regular visit to Shabir Masih (58 years), the poor father of the deceased Usman Masih who was shot dead because ‘ritually impure’ water from the Christian home passed by an Islamic shrine.
Young Pakistani Christian school girl awarded for her work in the community.
Naomi Chowdhry dedicates 3 hours a week to help with the British Asian Christian Association, Meals for the Homeless Project.
Naomi Chowdhry finally received her Jack Petchey Award which she had won in 2021. Due to COVID-19 concerns ceremonies were not held by all schools last year. This year the Epping Schools Ceremony was held on 11th July 2022, at the Sir James Hawkey Hall in Woodford from 7.30pm – 9.30pm.
Naomi was given her award for the volunteering she has regularly been undertaking helping give food to Redbridge’s homeless people at Clementswood Community Centre.
