By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent, Worthy News
FAISALABAD, PAKISTAN (Worthy News) – As tensions rose Saturday between India and Pakistan, at least one widow was mourning the death of her only son, a Christian teenager shot and killed by a Muslim in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Gulfam Masih, 19, was killed in the Ghulam Muhammad Abad area of the city of Faisalabad, according to police documents seen by Worthy News.
“The victim and his uncle, who filed the police complaint, were on a motorcycle” when they were attacked, said human rights lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill.
He added that the Muslim suspects who were also on a motorcycle were “slightly hitting their motorcycle with them.”
Gill told Worthy News that the Muslims, who apparently knew the teenager was a Christian, “started to use abusive words.”
Soon after, one person, named publicly as Rana Ejaz, fired his pistol, hitting Masih, according to Gill and police.
Masih was rushed to the hospital but did not survive the May 6 attack. It was the latest in a series of deadly attacks against Christians in Muslim Pakistan, which is currently involved in cross-border clashes with India, a mainly Hindu nation.
WIDOW MOURNING
“Gulfam Masih is the only son of a widowed mother. He has been brutally killed—shot in the head by influential Muslim individuals in the area,” added Gill, who himself fled his home due to death threats.
The young man’s “life was cut short in an act of religiously motivated violence that once again highlights the grave dangers faced by minority communities in Pakistan,” Gill added.
His advocacy group, LEAD Ministries Pakistan, also “strongly condemns this horrific act and mourns the loss of this innocent young man.”
The group said, “We urge the authorities to take swift and decisive action to bring the perpetrators to justice and to ensure the protection and safety of Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan.”
Gill, who supports the family, said that “Our hearts and prayers go out to Gulfam [Masih]’s grieving mother and family. Justice must not be delayed.”
Pakistan currently ranks 8th on the annual World Watch List of 50 nations, where advocacy group Open Doors says Christians face the most persecution for their faith.“By far, the most Christians live in Punjab Province, so many incidents of persecution, discrimination, and intolerance occur there. Next to Punjab, the province of Sindh is also notorious for being a centre for bonded labour, which affects many Christians,” Open Doors said.
“Christians from Muslim backgrounds suffer the brunt of persecution from radical Islamist groups and families, friends, and neighbours. Radicals regard them as apostates, while families and the community see conversion as a shameful act of betrayal,” the charity added.
Christians comprise roughly 1.8 percent of Pakistan’s mainly Muslim population of roughly 252 million people, according to Christian researchers.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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