Despite threatening letters, Charsadda’s Christian community decides to stay put and not convert to Islam. Local uniformed and plainclothes police are deployed to protect churches.

Charsadda (AsiaNews) – No Christian shall abandon Charsadda, a town just a few km from the capital of Islamabad, nor convert to Islam. The local Christian community responded this way to threats in anonymous letters that unknown Islamic extremists sent to local churches, announcing the death of “infidels” who do not convert to the “true Muslim faith.”

A local Christian leader, Chaudry Saleem, said: “We are frightened, but no Christian family has moved to any other place”.

There are some 600 Christians living in the district and uniformed and plainclothes police are providing protection and patrolling local churches. An investigation is also underway to find out who wrote the threatening letter.

“The letter was written in Urdu . . .  it seems that an immature person has written it because the writing style and language used is pretty bad. The Taliban are more sophisticated in such activities,” the local police chief said.

Shahbaz Bhatti, chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, visited the town with some members of the organisation. He urged local authorities to their utmost to guarantee security in the area which had already been targeted by extremists.

• pakistan
• charsadda
• christian
• community
• islamic
• extremists
• conversion
• flight