Christian slums destroyed by Pak-Government leaving hundreds homeless before Christmas
Published: Sat, 12/24/22
Firstly, let me wish you all a Merry Christmas.
It's the time of the year when families get together, people provide gifts to one another and we all eat sumptuous meals, but most importantly our celebrations centre around the birth of Christ. A time when God came down onto earth to establish His Kingdom and eternal life for those who believe in Him.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:11-14
As in previous years BACA's impact for the Christmas period starts with our service to homeless people, near are origins as a group in Ilford, London. On 16th December 2022 we served 52 people with food, gifts of new warm clothing and copies of the Bible to those who wanted them. The event was opened in prayer by 12 year old Willow Chowdhry. Read more (here).
We also distributed clothes to several Pak-Christians families, after goods we sent by ship over a year ago, that had been severely delayed by COVID-19, finally arrived. Read more and watch videos (here).
We are pleased to announce that asylum seeker Javaid Sadiq has now left Thailand and we were able to pay his overstay fines to the Royal Thai Government. His 9 years in limbo have ended and he will now be celebrating freedom in Canada, where he will finally be free of persecution. You can read his story (here).
We will be sharing articles about our Christmas worship service with asylum seekers in Thailand and deprived communities in Pakistan, before the year ends.
However, we take this time to remind you that Christmas will not be a joyous time for many people this year.
In war-torn Ukraine, many Christians will be struggling with the need for food and some will be without electricity. Russia continues to attack Ukraine and joy that Christmas induces in other parts of the world, will be lessened in this region. We have prepared this short video (click here). More can be read (here)
There are Christians in Pakistan who have been intentionally made homeless, by bigoted authorities who have bulldozed their homes. These Christian families with many small children face a turbulent Christmas in the cold, with just tents or makeshift homes made of cloth as their only insulation from the weather. Read more and watch video(here).
There is also a lonely Christmas and uncertain new year to be faced by Shabir Masih, whose wife and only son were shot dead for being ritually impure by fundamental Muslims in 2020. With the help of BACA, Shabir was able to gain murder convictions against the man who killed his family, but will now go through a difficult trial as he challenges for joint enterprise convictions for others involved in their deaths. Read more (here).
The 6 UN registered Pak-Christians arrested in Thailand for overstaying their travel visas will face an uncertain Christmas, while they are locked in the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) of Bangkok. Fortunately we were able to cover all the costs for court fines preventing them from being incarcerated in the brutal Central Jail with rapists and murderers. We hope to give gifts of food and toiletries to them and other detainees in the IDC, to help them cope in extremely difficult
conditions. We also aim to help these Christians gain freedom from the IDC through an asylum bail process, that we and a few other charities challenged the Royal Thai Government for almost a decade ago. Every attempt is also being made to release the 11 year old child and her mother as soon as possible. You can read more and donate towards this work (here).
We include some of the articles from our previous newsletter as we still seek donations to support the work.
We still need to raise a further £3500 for the new solicitor appointed for Zafar Bhatti, Pakistan's longest serving blasphemy convict. If you are moved to help you can donate (here).
Help is also being sought from any 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 3488 5316.
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 locations within or around London. If you have items you'd like to donate please email juliet@britishasianchristians.org or call 020 3488 5316. You can alternatively post them
to British Asian Christian Association, Unit 74934, PO Box 6945, London, W1A 6US. We thank you for those of you who have already responded to this request.
Blessings
Hannah Chowdhry
We include a list of all the articles included in this weeks news letter, 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).
Pak-Christian man whose wife and only son were shot dead for being ritually impure now seeks justice via gruelling joint enterprise trial
A dispute over the right for sewage water that that passed by the home of a Christian family to travel past a Muslim shrine, resulted in the killing of a young Christian man and his mother.
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.
His mother Ishrat Bibi however, was shown leniency for her age. This despite the fact that she had begun the argument and called for her son to murder Usman and Yasmeen.
After the murder of Usman and Yasmeen, British Asian Christian Association, were the only charity to offer any help. We supported Shabir with a solicitor and secured two death sentences for the murderer Hasan Butt, at Wazirabad Court on 20th October 2021.
Several Christian families in Pakistan have benefitted from items no longer needed by our supporters in England. Two of the bags of clothing we sent during COVID-19 reached Pakistan last week just days before Christmas and we have been able to distribute them in Lahore, amongst deprived communities linked to St John’s Church.
Our helpers, first washed the clothes, than organised them by size and and then invited local families to come and collect items that were the right size for them.
Image: One of our volunteers distributes food, while others locate the correctly labelled gifts with Christmas cards, Christmas crackers and other gifts.
Homeless and economically deprived people in Ilford received a Christmas boost on 16th December, when our official celebration of Christ’s birth took place.
Hot turkey meals, with roast potatoes were provided, and vegetarian meals were given to visitors with gravy and other sauces provided in small pots, so that meals could be individualized to meet specific desires.
The meals were given in boxes with encouraging Bible verses written on to each lid and each visitor received, drinks, some foodbank treats and extra meals for later from Greggs.
Image: Two car batteries and a 12v – 220v inverter that power lights and sound equipment in Pastor Vasilev’s Church at Odessa, Ukraine.
British Asian Christian Association has been providing a regular gift to a church in Ukraine since the outbreak of war with Russia on 24th February 2022 (click here).
We also sponsored work with Ukrainian asylum seekers in Moldova (click here).
In July we shared details of how Pastor Vasilevwas running daily services to reach souls, during unceasing war in Ukraine (click here)
We wrote last month explaining our desire to increase our effort in Ukraine to help with the needs for clothes, heating and other support (click here).
Russian forces are intent on making life as uncomfortable as possible for citizens who have survived the war and are targeting of energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
Pastor Vasilev who leads our partner group has been reaching out to people in Kherson who are feeling the worst of Russian attacks. We would like to support his efforts as we reach shattered families in desperate need of help.
A woman and her children before a makeshift home made from cloth where once their breeze block home stood.
Islamabad’s Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) have bulldozed 115 houses of Christian slum dwellers of Nawaz Sharif Colony at H-9/2 Islamabad Authorities left all Muslims houses in the same slum untouched while targeting the homes
of deprived Christian sewage, drainage and domestic cleaning workers. During the operation, demolition workers stole woven charpai (rope beds), blankets,
kitchen utensils and other valuable items. Officers have told Christian leaders they plan to resume the operation immediately after
Christmas. Over 115 families have been forced to live in tents, and other make-shift homes in the
bitter cold of Islamabad’s winter.
Image: The family of Danish Masih – please help us bail out this young family and others before Christmas.
Royal Thai Police have begun the first national crackdown on illegal immigrants since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown (click here).
During one raid Police arrested 6 Pak-Christian Asylum Seekers including a girl aged 11.
The mother of the 11 year old has reached out to British Asian Christian Association, to seek help with removal of her child from the Bangkok Immigration Detention Centre.
Frightened asylum seekers cease black-market work and isolate themselves in grubby undersized condos, suffering even harder economic poverty as they avoid detection by authorities.
The mother of the 11 year old has reached out to British Asian Christian Association, to seek help with removal of her child from the Bangkok Immigration Detention Centre.
BACA celebrated the birthday of Sonia (12 yrs) one of the orphaned children of Shama and Shahzad, slaves who wereburned alive in a brick kiln in 2014. Read more (here).
The enslaved couple were accused of blasphemy by the accountant of their master who had raped Shama and wanted to escape conviction.
The accountant persuaded local mosques to foment a mob to kill them, resulting in over 5000 people beating them, breaking bones, raping Shama in front of her husband, before dragging the naked couple behind a tractor and throwing them in a brick kiln alive.
BACA has provided a live-in-nanny from the first month after the Christian parents were brutally murdered. Ensuring they had a continuing mother-like figure to care for them.
Our officers meet the family monthly and are with the family at all special days, a commitment we will continue until they reach adulthood.
Here are our responses to a French Magazine concerned about the treatment of Christians in Pakistan:
Christians are persecuted in Pakistan, like Hindus or Ahmadis… But are they proportionally more persecuted than other communities?
There is no simple answer to this question unfortunately. Figures from the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) recorded that 537 persons were accused under blasphemy laws during 1986-2015, 633 (47%) were Muslims, 494 were Ahmadi (37%), 187 were Christian (14%) and 21 were Hindu (2%). Christians at the time made up 1.6% of Pakistan’s and Ahmadi’s around 0.2%. The report did not distinguish between Shi’a and Sunni sects of Islam (click here).
It should be noted however that the Ahmadi community have been boycotting the census since 1974, to avoid persecution through identification. The UNHCR estimates that their are 4 Million Ahmadi in Pakistan a figure that would make them a larger minority than Christians (click here). At this point both minorities were facing great tribulation that was disproportionate to their demographic population. It can also bee seen that over 50% of blasphemy allegations were being laid against minorities.
Badil Masih was killed at 10 years of age after being sodomized by his Muslim employers, his mother fought for justice but eventually caved in to threats and ceased a murder trial (click here).
Months later Sahrifah Bibi died and left behind her son Soojal who was 8 years old, extremely distraught and confused (click here).
It took months to locate him but BACA did not give up and found him being passed around between uncles, and made to work for his upkeep (click here).
BACA struggled with them and gained permission to admit soojal to a primary school near his home. Read more (here).
Soojal (10 yrs) was illiterate and had to start 3 grades below his expected achievement levels for his age (click here).
We catch up with Soojal as he strives to fulfil his mothers desire that he becomes a police officer to help other Pakistani Christians facing intolerable persecution and abuse.
A Christian college student from Pakpattan, Pakistan was filmed being forcefully raped, and was then blackmailed into undergoing further rapes by 8 Muslim sexual predators in the area.
Despite evidence to the contrary local police have declared 7 of the rapists innocent in an investigation report.
The family of the victim are the only Christian family in the area and are receiving daily threats from influential people demanding they drop the case.
Frail Nawab Bibi was taken to hospital for treatment
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)
Zafar Bhatti could still be killed any day under the terms of his blasphemy conviction under Section 295C of the Blasphemy law of Pakistan. Read more (here).
We wrote recently about our success in appointing Pakistan’s most successful blasphemy Law solicitor for Zafar Bhatti (click here).
Saif-ul- Malook has filed an application for bail for Zafar Bhatti.
