Groups comprised of Islamic vigilantes have been partnering up with federal authorities in Pakistan to create traps for young people and trick them into sharing what their law deems as blasphemous content on social media so they can take them into custody and toss them in prison, an investigation carried out by Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights has discovered. And you can probably take a guess as to which religious faith the young folk being targeted by these groups belong to.
If you guessed, “Christian,” you nailed it.
Persecution of Christ followers still happens in a lot of places around the world, a fact many of us can forget here in the U.S. While we do have some mild persecution happening in your own nation, it’s nothing compared to what Christians in Pakistan and other Muslim majority countries have to deal with.
via The Christian Post:
A steep increase in blasphemy cases this year, many of them filed against Christians and other religious minorities, is tied to collusion between Muslim vigilantes and federal investigators, according to the NCHR report. Pakistan saw three times as many blasphemy cases in the first seven month of this year compared with all of last year, according to the NCHR investigation. As of July 25, there were 767 people accused of blasphemy languishing in jails across Pakistan, whereas in 2023 there were 213 suspects incarcerated for blasphemy, 64 in 2022, nine in 2021 and 11 in 2020, according to the data gathered by the NCHR.
“Most of the blasphemy cases were registered with the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cybercrime Unit in collaboration with a private entity,” the NCHR noted, adding that young men were targeted through entrapment tactics involving females using pseudonyms to lure them into blasphemous activities online. At least 594 blasphemy suspects were imprisoned in Punjab Province alone, followed by 120 in Sindh Province, 64 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, and two in Balochistan Province, the NCHR added.
The Special Branch report stated that a majority of the cases were now being brought to trial by what it referred to as private “vigilante groups” that are being led by attorneys and receiving support from volunteers who spend their time online looking in every digital nook and cranny for law violators.
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One of these groups has been found responsible for a total of 27 individuals who have now received life sentences or even the death penalty just in the last three years. The report went on to recommend that the Federal Investigation Agency launch an investigation into the matter to find out the source of funding for the groups.
The most active vigilante group is the Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan, which is prosecuting more than 300 cases, led by Shiraz Ahmad Farooqi, the complainant in the blasphemy conviction of a 40-year-old Christian woman, Shagufta Kiran. Kiran was handed the death sentence by a special judge in Islamabad on Sept. 18. The NCHR’s report called for “a comprehensive review” of the roles and accountability of both government and private entities. It also noted the inhumane conditions of blasphemy suspects in jails.
“Individuals accused of blasphemy are housed together in single, severely overcrowded barracks to protect them from potential harm by other inmates who may attack or threaten them,” the NCHR said in its report. “However, this arrangement results in inhumane living conditions, as the barracks lack adequate facilities and are grossly overcrowded.”
The detainees are then subjected to torture and various other kinds of pressures for them to engage in other criminal acts while they are in prison.
“Mere allegations of blasphemy in Muslim-majority Pakistan can ignite public outrage and sometimes result in mob violence. Hundreds of people have been accused and jailed for alleged blasphemy, and some were handed the death penalty, though none has been executed so far,” the report stated.
Please pray for our brothers and sisters who are being oppressed and persecuted for their faith in Jesus in Pakistan and other nations around the world.