A Muslim mob has vandalized a Hindu temple in Punjab province of Pakistan. Visuals posted on social media showed Muslims in Bhong Sharif of Rahim Yar Khan district attacking a temple dedicated to Hindu deity Ganesh on Wednesday.
People including children were seen pelting stones at statues and vandalizing furniture while chanting radical Islamic slogans. The mob also closed shops and blocked a motorway. The attack came after a local cleric filed a blasphemy case against an unidentified person for desecrating a madrasa.
A mob surrounds the Ganesh temple in Rahim Yar Khan district of Punjab province on Aug. 4. (Photo supplied)
The government deployed security forces to patrol the temple area, which has a Hindu community living in around 80 houses. In a video message, Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special envoy for religious harmony, condemned the attack and promised that action will be taken against rioters.
Attacks on places of worship of minorities is not new in Pakistan. Last December, a mob attacked a shrine of a Hindu mystic in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
A priest and a catechist from Hakha Diocese in Myanmar’s Chin state who were detained by a local militia have been released following mediation by Catholic leaders.
The Chinland Defense Force seized Father Noel Hrang Tin Thang and a catechist as they traveled from Surkhua town to Hakha on July 26. They have been helping dozens of people displaced by clashes between the military and resistance groups.
Father Noel Hrang Tin Thang from Hakha Diocese in Myanmar’s Chin state was arrested by the Chinland Defense Force on July 26. (Photo: RVA Hakha)
The Chinland Defense Force had accused the priest of giving information to the military junta, getting medical aid from the junta and urging locals to receive the junta’s support. Priests and religious in Myanmar have faced strong pressure and arrests by the junta since the military coup of February and consequent clashes between the army, ethnic rebels and civil defense groups.
More than 900 have been killed, over 7,000 arrested and thousands displaced since the military takeover.
Ethnic Christians in a remote, hilly village in Bangladesh are under pressure from Buddhists to renounce their faith after two mob attacks severely damaged a Baptist church.
The Bawm Tribal Baptist Church in Sundrapara village in Rangamati district was attacked twice by dozens of black-masked men, said the church’s head pastor Jyotilaso Chakma. The attackers demolished the church’s brick wall, windows, doors, tin roof, gate and cross.
The wall of Bawm Tribal Baptist Church in Rangamati district in southeast Bangladesh was demolished by unknown masked men. (Photo supplied)
The attackers, allegedly radical Buddhists, also threatened Christians in the village to reconvert to Buddhism. Pastor Chakma and a Christian villager said there had been pressure from extremist Buddhists since 30 Buddhist families converted to Christianity in 2008. Most of the families have fled the village fearing attacks.
The southeastern hilly region collectively called Chittagong Hill Tracts has a long history of insurgency and sectarian violence between largely Buddhist ethnic groups and settler Bengali Muslims.
A leading Filipino anti-trafficking Christian group has challenged the government of President Rodrigo Duterte to stamp out corruption to tackle human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
During an online seminar to mark the World Day Against Trafficking in Human Persons, the Philippine Interfaith Movement Against Human Trafficking, a forum of Catholic, Protestant and evangelical churches, demanded Duterte fire officials who take bribes from human traffickers and turn a blind eye.
Sex workers in the Philippines are often victims of human traffickers. (Photo: Jimmy Domingo)
The group said human trafficking is not only an issue of poverty but of corruption. An estimated 784,000 out of a population of about 102 million Filipinos are living in modern slavery, according to the Global Slavery Index.
The US government’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report placed Philippines in Tier 1 status, which means the country meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The anti-trafficking group says the country is “not even close” to the minimum standard and pointed out that more lawyers does not equate to fewer trafficking cases.
Authorities in communist China have jailed four Christians for selling electronic Bible players illegally. Four middle aged men were jailed from 15 months to six years and fined for their involvement in the business in Shenzhen city in southeast China’s Guangdong province.
Credit: Source link
