by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – As Christians in Punjab Province, Pakistan, continue to face intense violent persecution from Islamic extremists, a Christian father of three was arrested on November 3 and jailed pending trial for blasphemy, Morning Star News reports.
Zafar Iqbal Ward of No. 12 of Kahna in Lahore, Punjab Province, was arrested after three local Muslims accused him of setting fire to pages of the Quran near his house. Iqbal is the most recent in an extending line of Christians who have been arrested for allegedly defacing Quranic pages.
Iqbal has been charged under Section 295-B of Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law, which carries a life sentence for defacing the Quran.
Pakistani rights activist Napolean Qayyum told MSN: “Iqbal is now in prison on judicial remand, while his family has gone into hiding and are inaccessible.”
In a website statement about the situation facing Pakistani Christians, the Open Doors international Christian advocacy organization reports: “Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws are often used to target minority groups, but Christians are disproportionately affected. Indeed, roughly a quarter of all blasphemy accusations target Christians, who only make up 1.8% of the population.”
Ruled by an Islamic government that promotes harsh blasphemy laws, Pakistan ranks seventh on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon late Monday targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, including a training site used by the group’s elite Radwan Force, the military said in a statement Tuesday.
Archaeologists have uncovered one of the longest and best-preserved sections of Jerusalem’s Hasmonean-period city wall, a massive fortification dating to the Maccabean era, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday.
President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled a $12 billion bailout package aimed at supporting U.S. farmers who have absorbed the brunt of global market disruptions and retaliatory tariffs stemming from the administration’s ongoing trade war with China.
Federal agencies have canceled or significantly scaled back 43 wasteful government contracts worth a combined ceiling value of $3.5 billion, saving taxpayers $222 million, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced in a Dec. 6 post on X.
Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, half of the nation’s college students report feeling less comfortable attending controversial public events on campus and nearly half are less comfortable voicing opinions on controversial subjects in class.
A magnitude 7.6 earthquake centered in the Pacific Ocean some 45 miles west of Misawa, Japan, shook the northern region of the archipelago around 11:26 p.m. local time.
European Union leaders have expressed deep concern about a new U.S. national security strategy that they view as “ideologically anti-European,” supportive of “far-right” and populist movements across the continent, and a threat to transatlantic unity.