On October 8, a Christian government official in Pakistan was brutally assaulted by a group of lawyers in his office in Toba Tek Singh district, but the police failed to arrest the influential culprits.
Irfan Martin, an assistant commissioner, was present in his office. A group of 10 to 15 lawyers led by Advocate Umtilal Chaudhry entered the room and locked the door from the inside.
Toba Tek Singh District is located in the Faisalabad Division of the Punjab Province of Pakistan.
The assailants then pounced on Martin, tore his clothes, and started beating him with sticks and rods, according to sources.
When the bystanders tried to rescue Martin, the assailants also attacked his security person, Javed Niaz, and a civil defense employee, Jawed.
Martin said in his statement that the assailants were pressuring him to comply with their illegal demands.
"When I refused to do so, they tortured me and tried to kidnap me. After attacking me, they took away some important files and government records from my office," Martin said.
"I do not want to give a religious color to this attack, but the inaction of the police is disappointing," he added. "I want the government to do justice to me."
Christians make up 1.27 percent of Pakistan's population of 207.68 million.
As a religious minority, Christians repeatedly face persecution from government officials and others in Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country.
Most cases of harassment against Christians often go unreported for fear of reprisal. - Iram Inayat
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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