CHRISTIAN TORTURED TO DEATH BY ISLAMIC SEMINARY STUDENTS

PAKISTAN

14 May 2004

Muslims from an Islamic seminary in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab Province, Pakistan tortured a young Christian for five days and nights in order to force him to convert to Islam.

Students from the seminary run by Maulvi Ghulam Rasool set upon 19-year old Javaid Anjum, accusing him of stealing their water pump when they found him drinking from an outside tap on 17 April 2004. Javaid replied to their accusations by freely telling them he was a Christian merely searching for a drink and that they could be assured that he would not steal anything.

Upon learning that Javaid was a Christian, those accosting him forcibly took him into the school where he was tortured for five days by Maulvi Ghulam Rasool and others. Throughout his torture, Javaid’s tormentors ordered him to deny his Christian faith and embrace Islam. Finally they took him to a local police station on 22 April and accused him of theft. He was clearly dying so the police informed his family and allowed them to remove him to hospital. Javaid was able to make a statement on video during his hospital treatment, which included dialysis on several occasions because both his kidneys failed. Javaid did not recover from his torture and died in hospital shortly after 2 a.m. on 2 May.

SEVERE TORTURE

Javaid was a university student reading commerce. He had been returning to his grandfather’s house after a visit to an aunt when he was abducted. The injuries Javaid sustained could hardly be more horrific. He was given electric shocks repeatedly to various parts of his body including his ears, which damaged his hearing. His right arm and fingers were fractured and his nails were pulled out. His feet were swollen from beating and he suffered contusions and lacerations all over his body. He received many internal injuries, and besides the two failed kidneys the doctors’ report notes that he passed blood or pus instead of urine. In many places his skin appeared blackened and oozed pus and he could barely move.

In a shocking statement, the head constable at the police station where Javaid was taken said that it was God’s will that he had to die that way and that Muslims there caught and punished him without intending to kill him. Maulvi (Mullah) Ghulam Rasool has been arrested.

PRAY

* Pray for Javaid’s family.

* Pray for the safety of Christians in Pakistan in the face of increasing instances of anti-Christian hate-crimes since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

* Pray that Muslims would find such inhuman abuse shocking and condemn these atrocities that occur in the name of Islam; and that Maulvi Rasool would actually be convicted.

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