Masked men kidnapped Christians from Pakistan hospital
North Waziristan (Pakistan), SVM News, October 30, 2007: Pro-Taliban militants kidnapped two Christian sanitation workers on October 26 from a hospital in North Waziristan in Pakistan.
Salem Voice Ministries (SVM) News Service reports that Naeem Masih and Shahbaz Masih were kidnapped by masked men from the main gate of Miranshah Headquarters Hospital in North Waziristan on Friday.
Two Christians were kidnapped five months ago but were later released. Local Taliban are suspected to be involved in the incidents though no group has so far claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. Christian residents of Hadyara village on the outskirts of Lahore were attacked earlier this month by men who also stormed the New Apostolic Church, established before the partition of the Indian sub-continent.
They had complained to the authorities that their church could be razed by Muslims angry that Christian prayers were aired by loudspeakers.
Members of the minority community had said that announcements were made through mosque loudspeakers asking Muslims from nearby villages to be ready for a "final attack". Other announcements urged businesses and farmers not to allow Christians on to their properties.
Around 1,000 Christians live in the locality of Miranshah.
Islamist militants in Pakistan have regularly threatened to kill Christian clerics in Southern Punjab's Khanewal district if they did not "embrace Islam and stop preaching Christianity."
Demanding equal opportunities "as promised" by Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, minority organisations in August had sought a ban on forced conversions and repeal of the stringent blasphemy laws in the Islamic country. SVM News reports.
SALEM VOICE MINISTRIES NEWS SERVICE (SVM NEWS)
