Pakistan

Al-Qaida released a video Sunday showing 70-year-old U.S. citizen Warren Weinstein, kidnapped in Pakistan last year, pleading to President Barack Obama to break the U.S. rule of not negotiating with terrorists and save his life by meeting the kidnappers' demands.

Weinstein, a contractor for Virginia-based consulting firm J.E. Austin Associates Inc., made a personalized plea to the president in a video available online.

"My life is in your hands, Mr. President," the kidnapped contractor said in the video. "If you accept the demands, I live. If you don't accept the demands, then I die. It's important that you accept the demands and act quickly and don't delay." more >>

LAHORE, Pakistan – A Pakistani Christian falsely charged with "blasphemy" after rescuing his 8-year-old nephew from a beating at the hands of Muslim boys has been cleared of the charge.

Dildar Masih, a 27-year-old father of two young children, was acquitted on March 26 after prosecutors failed to produce any evidence against him, he said.

"I was produced in court three times during the case proceedings, but not one accuser ever turned up at the hearings," Masih told Compass by phone. "You cannot imagine my joy when the prison officials told me that I had been acquitted by the court. I had not been taken to the hearing that day; only my lawyer, Javed Raza, and father were present in the courtroom." more >>

LAHORE, Pakistan – Authorities do not know who abducted two Christian hospital employees in Karachi last week, but police sources said they suspected the kidnappers had links with banned terrorist organizations.

There is a strong possibility that Islamic extremists took the two workers of South Korea-based Good Samaritan Hospital, Issac Samson and Indrias Javaid, to Pakistan's tribal areas after kidnapping them on Thursday (March 1), the sources said.

"Such cases are on the rise, as banned Islamist groups and other criminal gangs are turning to kidnappings for ransom in order to survive and procure weapons and ammunition, but at the same time one cannot rule out the possibility of a targeted elimination of foreign and local NGO [Non-Governmental Organization] workers," a senior investigator for the Karachi police told Compass. more >>

Seema Bibi, a Christian woman from Pakistan, was recently humiliated, tortured and paraded in the streets of her village by a mob who accused her of "anti-Islam views."

Some 30 or so residents of Kot Meerath, a village in Pakistan's Punjab province, dragged her out of her house, shaved her head and then paraded her in front of the village, police officials revealed. After the Feb. 26 incident, the Bibi family were forced to flee the village in fear of their lives.

"She and her family had been facing threats from a group of extremist villagers. She left the village as she had no other option," shared Aslam Masih, a resident of Kot Meerath, PTI News reported. more >>

Christians and civil society groups got together for candlelight vigils in Pakistan's major cities Friday to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of the country's Christian federal minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, who bravely spoke against the repressive blasphemy laws.

At vigils in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, Christian leaders and social activists carried placards and shouted slogans condemning 42-year-old Bhatti's murder a year ago and religiously motivated violence that continues to plague the country, local media reported.

Bhatti, the minister for minority affairs and the only Christian in the country's cabinet, was shot to death by suspected Islamist terrorists on March 2 last year while he was on his way to a government meeting in Islamabad. The pamphlets found near the assassination scene bore the name of the terror outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Punjab and stated, "Anyone who criticizes the blasphemy law has no right to live." more >>

Two copies of an English version of the Holy Bible were found in the building where Osama bin Laden spent his last days and was killed by U.S. forces, Pakistani officials revealed on Tuesday night.

The compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the al-Qaida leader was shot dead by U.S. Navy SEALs last May, is being demolished this week. A number of interesting discoveries have been made among the rubble, however.

Among them are cleverly hidden radios and two copies of the Bible, but different theories exist about why the extremist Islamic leader, who waged a holy war against the U.S., would have Bibles in his possession. Certain passages have apparently been highlighted in different colors, leading some Pakistani intelligence officials to believe that they might be coded messages referencing future terror attacks, The Times of India reported. Pakistan's ISI security service is conducting further investigations on the texts in question. more >>