Karachi: armed drug dealers threaten Pentecostal clergyman in order to get church land
Karachi (AsiaNews) – On 29 May, a group of armed drug dealers broke into the Jerusalem Church in Nazimabad (a district in central Karachi) and threatened its pastor, Rev Faheem, with seizing the church. They belong to a local crime gang, which sells drugs and alcohol just opposite the church.
The thugs told local Christians to clear the area within two days or they would gun down members of the community or come up with phoney accusations of blasphemy against them.
Local Christians are scared and fear retaliation by the criminals. Most of them are very poor and are employed as domestic workers in the homes of wealthy families.
In the neighbourhood, drug dealers are known for their illegal trade and illegal land grab. The boss is Fareed Pathan and his associates are Haider Pathan, Subhan Pathan, Pathan and Muzafar Garari Pathan, all Muslim and ethnic Pashtun.
They run their business near the Pentecostal church. They make fun of Christian women who come to pray and verbally abuse them with insulting and violent language.
"We went to the Rizvia police station to file a complaint against the drug dealers but the police did not want to cooperate with us”, a member of the executive committee of the Jerusalem Church told AsiaNews. “A deputy inspector is involved with the criminal gang and has harmed the Christian community out of self-interest. We do not trust the police."
"The issue of land grabbing is nothing new for Christians, especially in Sindh province,” said Kashif Aslam, coordinator of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP). “There are thousands of cases pending in the courts of law involving the cemeteries, temples and churches of religious minorities."
In fact, the Christian community is subject to constant harassment in Pakistan, as evidenced by the horrific attack against two churches in Lahore on 15 March and the death threats against a Christian leader, “guilty” of building churches.
The Commission intervened in the affair and 1 June organised a meeting between the religious committee and the drug dealers. Both parties have decided not to do harm the other. On the basis of a verbal agreement, the mobsters said that they would not hurt anyone, but the community is still in shock.
"Politicians also attended the meeting with the dealers,” said William Boota, a member of the executive committee of the Jerusalem Church.
“The question seems settled but there is still fear in the community because similar meetings took place in the past two years. But after a while, mobsters began again harming the faithful."
"May the Lord lead them on the path of truth and restore peace, because we are not able to deal with such harm. God be with us all, "said the cleric.
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