GFA Missionaries Held Hostage; Captors Threaten Murder
Five Afghan Christians Martyred
House Church Leader in Vietnam Released After Eight Days of
Interrogation
Pakistani Christian Tortured To Death By Police; 40 Christian
Protestors
GFA Missionaries Held Hostage; Captors Threaten Murder
Gospel For Asia
Anti-Christian elements in Bihar have captured, severely beaten and are
threatening to kill GFA native missionary Pastor Manrathan and his wife.
GFA Bible woman Sarita is also being held hostage. An anti-Christian mob
from six villages holds the Gospel workers tied to a sacred tree,
demanding 25,000 rupees as a ransom for desecrating their village with
the Gospel. If the exorbitant amount is not received within 48 hours,
they plan to kill the missionaries as a sacrifice to their deities.
There are no police in the isolated area to intervene. GFA leaders are
fervently praying for wisdom on how they can best help the situation.
The anti-Christian group spearheading the incident is the same one that
burned missionary Graham Staines and his two children alive in Orissa
several years ago. In recent years a number of GFA missionaries serving
in their native India have been brutally murdered for sharing their
faith as well. Pastor Manrathan's village has proven extremely dangerous
for Christian workers, yet God has blessed his courage and commitment.
Five Afghan Christians Martyred
Compass Direct
Five Afghan men who had converted to Christianity have been killed in
separate incidents since late June near the borders of eastern
Afghanistan. All five men were stabbed or beaten to death in summary
executions by Taliban adherents who accused them of abandoning Islam and then "spreading Christianity" in their communities. The first stabbing
death was reported on July 1 by Reuters news agency, which received a
telephone call from a Taliban spokesman identifying himself as Abdul
Latif Hakimi. The caller declared that a group of Taliban fighters had
killed Mullah Assad Ullah the previous day in Ghazni province's remote
Awdand region, a known Taliban stronghold and traditional seat of
Islamic learning. "A group of Taliban dragged out Mullah Assad Ullah and
slit his throat with a knife because he was propagating Christianity,"
Hakimi told Reuters. "We have enough evidence and local accounts to
prove that he was involved in the conversion of Muslims to
Christianity." Hakimi went on to accuse a number of foreign aid
agencies of involvement in spreading Christianity among Afghanistan's
overwhelmingly Muslim population. At least 33 foreign aid workers have
been killed by the Taliban in the past 18 months.
House Church Leader in Vietnam Released After Eight Days of
Interrogation
Charisma News Service
A prominent house church leader was released Monday after eight days of
interrogation. The Rev. Tran Mai was arrested on Aug. 29 as he crossed
the border of the Asian nation after several months abroad. He was
questioned regarding his association with two other prominent house
church leaders who are currently in police custody: the Rev. Bui Van Ba
and the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang. Despite his release, Mai was ordered to
appear for further questioning before authorities. Mai's release came
after the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF), an association of 30
unregistered house church groups of which Mai's group is an active
member, called for a three-day period of fasting and prayer from Sept.
5-7. The VEF also urged Christians to pray for the protection of house
churches, especially in light of Vietnam's new Ordinance on Religion,
which is scheduled to become law on Nov. 15. Meanwhile, on Aug. 23, the
mother of Mennonite evangelists Nguyen Huu Nghia and Nguyen Thanh Nhan was allowed to visit her imprisoned sons for the first time since their
arrest in Ho Chi Minh City on March 2. It took nearly six months for the
brothers' family to get permission for the visit.
(http://www.charismanow.com)
Pakistani Christian Tortured To Death By Police; 40 Christian
Protestors
Michael Ireland, Assist News Service
A young Christian man, died in prison on August 19 -- four days after
being beaten and tortured by officers in two different police stations.
When local Christians sought to have the police brutality investigated,
40 of the protesting Christians were arrested. According to Barnabas
Fund, Nasir Masih went to join in the celebrations for Pakistan's
Independence Day on 15th August. He got into a fight with local Muslims
who beat him severely and then had him arrested on false charges of
theft. At Police Station B-Division, Sheikhupura District, Nasir was
beaten again and then handed over to Saddar Police Station, also in
Sheikhupura District. Here he was tortured to the point where he lost
consciousness. Nasir was given no treatment for his injuries and died in
prison on 19th August. A crowd of hundreds of Christians began to shout
protests and blocked the traffic at the prison. Eventually the police
Deputy Inspector General agreed to register a case against the police.
The police registered cases against 40 of the protestors, who were
arrested at their work places on 21st August, the day after the protest.
They have since been released, but the case against them is still
pending.
