They Cry in Silence May/Jun 2011
Pastor in India Attacked. A pastor in India was stripped, beaten, and wounded by 10 Hindu extremists recently while praying in a home for a sick 8-year-old boy. The extremists arrived on motorbikes, grabbed Pastor Hari Shankar Ninama, took him outside the village, stripped off his clothes, and assaulted him.
“They slapped Pastor Ninama’s daughter Galadh and beat the sick boy’s father too,” said Paasu Dindore, a witness who had also wanted prayer. “As soon as the attack took place I fled from the spot and witnessed the event from a distance, hiding,” he said.
Area source Sunny Meda told Compass the extremists have threatened to burn down the home of Pastor Ninama’s daughter if police prosecute. “There is fear and terror among the Christian families in the village,” Meda said. The family is afraid to seek prosecution. A farmer, Pastor Ninama, 65, converted from Hinduism to Christianity 12 years ago.
Pakistani Christian Killed by Muslim Employer. The Christian family of 24-year-old Imran Masih has been in anguish since Masih was found dead at his Muslim employer’s farmhouse in February. The employer, influential landowner Chaudhry Maqsood Cheema, claimed Masih committed suicide by hanging himself. Masih’s relatives believe Cheema saw the young Christian as a “soft target” whose family had little standing or legal recourse in the predominantly Muslim society and killed him for taking a day off without permission.
Masih and his wife were expecting their first child. His father, Lal Masih, told Compass, “When I entered the room, I saw my son’s body hanging with a rope, and a very loose noose was around his neck.” The body hung only six inches off the ground, and nothing indicated he could have hung himself.
The autopsy report appeared to be falsified. Napolean Qayyum, field officer for the Christian legal aid organization Community Development Initiative, said, “Lal told us that the men who had washed Masih’s dead body had reported seeing a swelling of his private organs, which suggested that he had been hit badly in that area. There was also a bruise on the back of his head.”
Christian Girl Abducted in Sudan. A Christian widow in north Sudan is still searching for her 15-year-old daughter who was kidnapped by Islamic extremists in Khartoum in June 2010. “I have been living in a state of fear and terror,” said Ikhlas Anglo, 35. Her daughter, Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo, disappeared while returning from the Ministry of Education in Khartoum where she had gone to obtain her transcripts for entry to secondary school.
Two days later, the family received threatening telephone calls and text messages from the kidnappers telling them to pay 1,500 Sudanese pounds (US $560) to secure her return. Sources say the kidnappers are Muslim extremists who targeted the family because they are Christians and that police are fully involved in the crime. Anglo said the police told her to leave Christianity for Islam if she wants her daughter back.
Adding to the anguish, Anglo was fired from her job when she took time off—with permission—to search for Hiba. On July 9 south Sudan, which has a Christian majority, will become independent and try to establish a zone free of Sharia law. However, north Sudan will tighten its Sharia law, and Christians there anticipate increased persecution.
Compiled from reports filed by Compass Direct News.
