Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Shamim Masih in Pakistan

Shamim & Najma Masih

John R. Houk
© March 29, 2016

Shamim Masih has been a long-term contributor to my blogs SlantRight 2.0, NCCR and Ubiquitous8Thoughts. I have posted many of Shamim’s submissions cross posting among all three blogs. All three blogs have a search element but annoyingly the search results are not in any kind of order but comes as a mixed bag of posts.

Every so often I post a plea for any readers of this blog to donate to the well-being of Shamim Masih. You might ask, “Why? What has Shamim done for me in America or in Europe?”

Shamim is one of the Christian minority living in Pakistan. Pakistan is officially an Islamic Republic with about 97% of the population professing to be Muslim. In 2005 an estimate of the Christian population was about 2.5 million souls. That was then 1.6% of population according to Wikipedia. If you listen to Pakistani Christians, the population is greater. If you listen to Muslims in the government, they may guess a lesser amount of Christians.

For such a small percentage of the Pakistan population you would think Muslim would not view their Christian citizens as a threat. But guess what? Pakistan Muslims – even the so-called Moderate majority – treat Pakistani Christians as third rate dhimmis worthy to be treated with humiliation and disdain. Even to the point of false accusation of blasphemy against Islam for no other real reason other than greed or vindictiveness. As far as a I know no one convicted under Blasphemy Laws has been officially executed by the government, yet some Christians have died in prison under mysterious circumstances. Murdered Christians in prison examples:




o   Aftab Bahadur Masih – Convicted for false claim of murder in 1992, executed by hanging in June 2015.

o   Aslam Masih – Medicine withheld by prison died of illness.


o   51 people accused of blasphemy were murdered before their respective trials were over.

Pakistani Christians live constantly under the fear of persecution via vandalism, false accusations, rapes, forced conversions and some downright humiliating treatment for a human being. ALL just for being a Christian.

Shamim Masih as a Christian Rights Activist, a journalist and some lay ministry to Christians lives under these horrible circumstances with nearly no succor from the Western World which for the most part has turned its back on Biblical Christianity.

Shamim has shared with me that his activities have gotten him discharged as a journalist at the Daily Khabrain. I am unsure if they gave Shamim a specific reason but he believes his bosses fired him for going to Yohanabad against a direct order to write about the afflicted Christian victims Islamic terrorism blowing two Churches during services.

Shamim has also shared that he has gone on a hiatus from writing because he and his family have received threats for his pro-Christian work in Pakistan.

Here is the last communication Shamim sent to me to share with my blog readers:

Before proceeding let me introduce myself, this is Shamim Masih, professional journalist with diverse work experience from humanitarian to journalism. Many of you are witness to it that apart from my professional responsibilities, I have been writing for the voiceless community of Pakistan and raising issues they are facing. I have ever tried to reach the place where Pakistani Christians faced problems or any incident accrued, from Gojra burning to twin churches blasts in Youhanabad, Lahore last year. Remember that all these services are volunteers. No organization is supporting me in this regard, though I got many threat calls but I dare to raise their voice.

Unfortunately, this resulted in the loss my job (a regular source of income), since August last year. I am jobless and hardly managing my living expenses. I am a father of four school-going children and this year my children also secured very good marks and were promoted to the next classes. Sorry to say but I am penniless and don’t even have funds to purchase books, uniform and stationary for them. In this regard, if you can support me this year and pray for my job as well, [my gratitude would be enormous].

Kind Regards,

Shamim

Unfortunately, Pakistan is one of those nations that does not allow PayPal to operate in that nation. You can use my SlantRight 2.0 PayPal account link, but if you do so please leave Shamim a donation of substance. The reason being is that I use Western Union to send money to Shamim and that company charges me a percentage of whatever amount I send.

Here is the Western Union information I share with every Shamim Masih post:

The best way to SUPPORT Shamim’s Christian advocacy in Pakistan is via Western Union sending money with this LINK to a Western Union agent in Islamabad. Include Shamim’s phone - +92-300-642-4560

The Islamic terrorism committed against Christians is an ongoing horror in Pakistan. Below are a couple news reports telling you about an attack against Christians - mostly women and children – congregating together in a park in Lahore Pakistan to celebrate Easter. The death toll may be a progressive discovery. On Fox News on Sunday I heard 70 died. I have read early reports place the dead at 55 and the latest report that I discovered on 3/28 was 72.

JRH 3/29/16
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‘The target was Christians,’ Pakistani Taliban says of Lahore Easter attack

March 28, 2016 

The spokesman for a faction of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan said that the group intentionally targeted Christians in a suicide bombing which killed and wounded hundreds of women and children on Easter Sunday.

“The target was Christians,” Ihsanullah Ihsan, the official spokesman of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, said according to a statement obtained by The Long War Journal.

Ihsan also said that Jamaat-ul-Ahrar wanted to “send a message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore.” The group has been operating in Punjab province for nearly two years.

At least 72 people, mostly women and children, were killed and more than 300 were wounded after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance of the Gulshan-i-Iqbal park in the eastern city of Lahore, according to Dawn. Many of the people at the park were said to have been celebrating Easter Sunday.

The brutal Lahore suicide attack took place just one day after the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the official name of the Afghan Taliban, released a statement entitled “Only Islamic rituals can be celebrated in an Islamic country” on its official website, Voice of Jihad. The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has given an oath of allegiance to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has targeted Christians in Lahore in the past. In March 2015, the group claimed responsibility for the bombings at two churches in Lahore. At least 14 people were killed and 70 more were wounded.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar launched at least two other suicide attacks in Punjab. In November 2014, a suicide bomber killed 50 people at the Wagah border crossing with India. And in August 2015, another of the group’s suicide bombers killed Punjab province’s home minister and 16 other people in an attack at his house.

The Pakistani military responded to the Easter Sunday massacre in Lahore by announcing the beginning of a wide security operation in Punjab to root out Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. But, as noted, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has been active in the province and has conducted several high-profile suicide attacks there since November 2014.

A dangerous jihadist group

The leadership of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is known to have ties to multiple jihadist groups operating in the region. Omar Khalid al Khurasani, a top leader of the group, is closely linked to Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s emir, and has called for the imposition of sharia law and the establishment of a global caliphate. Khurasani has also said that a primary goal of the Pakistani Taliban is to obtain nuclear weapons. [See LWJ reports, Taliban commander wants Pakistan’s nukes, global Islamic caliphate, and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar celebrates 9/11 attack.]

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar split from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the summer of 2014 after a leadership dispute emerged in the wake of the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the previous emir of the Pakistani Taliban alliance. But Jamaat-ul-Ahrar rejoined the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in March 2015. Lashkar-e-Islam, a group based in Pakistan’s tribal areas, also joined the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan is also known to have integrated key al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leaders into its organization. In May 2014, three jihadist groups – led by Matiur Rehman, Ehsanul Haq, and Muhammad Shamil – merged with the group. Matiur Rehman, who was put in command of all three factions, is a senior al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader. The US Treasury Department described Rehman as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s “chief operational commander” and as “a planning director for al Qaeda” in his 2010 designation.

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Pakistan: Taliban Massacres Christians in Easter Suicide Bombing

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal
March 27, 2016 at 8:13pm


At least 69 people have died and 300 injured in a suicide bombing targeting Christians during Easter celebration in Pakistan. Most of the victims are women and children.

The attack took place in a public park in the Pakistani city of Lahore. A former Taliban splinter group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, has taken responsibility for the attack — confirming the target of the suicide bombing were Christians.  In 2014, the splinter group had reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS).

According to eyewitnesses the explosion took place at the entrance of the park — meters away from the children’s swings.

Indian-based NDTV reports:

A breakaway Pakistani faction of the militant Taliban group has claimed responsibility for an Easter Sunday bombing in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed 65 people.

Ahsanullah Ahsan, spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, told the Associated Press that a suicide bomber with the faction deliberately targeted the Christian community.

The explosion took place near the children’s rides in Gulshan-e-Iqbal park – which was crowded with Christians celebrating Easter -local police chief Haider Ashraf said. He said the explosion appeared to have been a suicide bombing, but investigations were ongoing.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar’s spokesman told media that “we have carried out this attack to target the Christians who were celebrating Easter. Also this is a message to the Pakistani prime minister that we have arrived in Punjab [Pakistan’s most populous province].”

The attack comes at a time when Islamists are rioting in Pakistan in support of Islamist gunman Mumtaz Qadri, who murdered the governor of Punjab 5 years ago. Qadri was hanged for the murder last month, sparking nationwide protests from the Islamic fanatics.

With a population of just over 2 million, Christians make up around 1.5 percent on Pakistan’s population. The tiny minority has long been a target of terrorist attacks, as well as persecuted by state-sanctioned Sharia and blasphemy laws.

Watch: EuroNews report on Lahore Terror Attack




Published on Mar 27, 2016

A suicide bombing has killed at least 65 people, mostly women and children, and injured at least 280 others at a public park in the Pakistani city of Lahore.…

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Terror in Pakistan: 70 Christians Massacred in Easter Sunday Suicide Bombing

March 28, 2016, 12:30 pm

And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.” Isaiah 13:18 (The Israel Bible™)







Christians were the target of Easter Sunday’s devastating terror attack at a Pakistani park, said the Taliban-affiliated terror group which claimed credit for the carnage. At least 70 Pakistani Christians were killed in the city of Lahore when explosives originating from Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, detonated amidst hundreds of families gathered to celebrate the holiday.

The explosion is believed to be the work of a suicide bomber who entered the main gate to the park in the early evening. It took place only a short distance from a playground, killing 29 children and dozens of adults.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which swore allegiance to the Islamic State in 2014 after splitting from the Taliban and then switched loyalties again in 2015, said it had perpetrated the attack in order to send a message to Pakistan’s leaders: Islamic terrorism has arrived.

“The target was Christians,” said faction spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, Reuters reported. “We want to send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore.”

Lahore, the capital city of Pakistan’s richest province, Punjab, represents the power base of Sharif’s government and has a significant Christian population. The attack on the city’s Christians, which came on one of the most significant religious holidays of the year, was the deadliest assault on Pakistani Christians since the 2013 bombing of a Peshawar church which killed over 80 people.

In addition to the fatalities, which are still adding up, over 300 people were wounded. The nation quickly announced three days of mourning for the victims.

Government and military officials immediately launched several raids and searches around Punjab, uncovering weapons caches and detaining suspected terrorists, said military spokesman General Asim Bajwa in a tweet.


Number of suspect terrorists and facilitators arrested and huge cache of arms and ammunition recovered-3


While Pakistan’s Christians comprise only 1.6 percent of the population, they are the second-largest minority group after Hindus in Pakistan, which is about 95 percent Muslim.

Attacks on Christian villages, hospitals and churches have increased in recent years as Islamic fanaticism in the region ramps up and Muslims target Christians, whom they see as infidels.

Lahore in particular has been a target. In 2013, Muslims attacked a Christian neighborhood in the city and burned over 100 houses after a Christian allegedly made “blasphemous” remarks.

Islamic terrorism has become an increasingly serious threat to Christians worldwide. The terror group Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamic organization active in Africa, is believed to have killed between 9,000 and 11,500 Christians since 2000.

In the Middle East, ISIS is known to massacre, kidnap and enslave Christians unlucky enough to be captured within the caliphate’s territory in Syria and Iraq, as it sees Christians as idol worshipers. In Israel, Christians enjoy religious freedom, but no one is free from the militant Islamism and terror which has killed over 30 Israelis and injured hundreds more in past several months.

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Other sources examined:




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Shamim Masih in Pakistan
John R. Houk
© March 29, 2016

The best way to SUPPORT Shamim’s Christian advocacy in Pakistan is via Western Union sending money with this LINK to a Western Union agent in Islamabad. Include Shamim’s phone - +92-300-642-4560

Pakistan is one of those nations that does not allow PayPal to operate in that nation. You can use my SlantRight 2.0 PayPal account link, but if you do so please leave Shamim a donation of substance. The reason being is that I use Western Union to send money to Shamim and that company charges me a percentage of whatever amount I send.
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‘The target was Christians,’ Pakistani Taliban says of Lahore Easter attack

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal.

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Pakistan: Taliban Massacres Christians in Easter Suicide Bombing

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Terror in Pakistan: 70 Christians Massacred in Easter Sunday Suicide Bombing

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