Pakistan: Family of Murdered Christian Man Threatened With Death Unless They Drop Charges Against Killer
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The family of a 20-year-old Christian who was murdered by an Islamic extremist in Pakistan are being threatened that they too will be killed unless they drop their charges against the murderer, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
Farhan Ul Qamar was shot dead in front of his family by neighbor Muhammad Zubair inside his home in Talwandi Inayat Khan village, Pasrur tehsil of Sialkot District, Punjab Province on Nov. 9 2023, MSN reports. Prior to opening fire on Farhan, Zubair raged against Jews as well as Christians.
Zubair was arrested and charged with the murder, which he initially confessed to. However, he retracted his confession once the case came to court, MSN reports.
Zubair’s relatives have now threatened Farhan’s family with death unless they drop the charges. Farhan’s father Noor Ul Qamar said that on the evening of March 18, Zubair’s father, Afzal Bajwa, stormed into his house and held his family at gunpoint. “The intruders threatened us that if we do not stop pursuing the case and reach a settlement with them to free Zubair from prison, they would kill us all,” Ul Qamar told MSN. “God knows what would have happened to us if the police hadn’t come on time and took the intruders into custody. I filed an application for the registration of a case against them, but instead the police released the men after a few hours.”
“Zubair’s family started threatening me to withdraw the case a couple of months after they saw that the hype around the murder had settled down,” Ul Qamar said. “They first sent reconciliatory messages through different people, but when we refused, their tone became more aggressive, and they threatened to kill me if I did not surrender to their demand.”
Muslim-majority Pakistan ranks 7 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
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