Posted on 06/25/2008 11:22:25 AM PDT by Molly K.
PESHAWAR: In one of the most embarrassing incidents in the history of the provincial metropolis, 25 members of the Christian community were kidnapped when armed men attacked a building in the Christian Colony near the Academy Town on Saturday.
"There were a large number of people gathered at around 8 pm and were preparing for worship when armed men broke into the building and picked up 25 to 40 Christians in pick-up vans," a resident of the Christian Colony, Isac, told The News. He said that two of those picked up by the armed men were priests.
Sources said that the militants had warned the residents of the Christian Colony to vacate the building as it was once part of a local Madressa. The Christians were not ready to vacate the property.
The Christian Colony is located close to the posh University Town, where a number of diplomatic missions are established, and the spacious campus of the University of Peshawar.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytimes.com.pk ...
Thank you for posting this...all too often Christians get assaulted and butchered all over the world by Muslims with no announcement anywhere except in some of the Chrstian news networks.
The article also said that the entire city was barricaded immediately after the incident to stop the kidnappers from taking the hostages out of the district. The abducted persons, however, could not be recovered till late Saturday.
So I think that some (or all?) were finally let go.
It is a scary situation for the Christians in this quite dangerous region.
At a different link http://www.groundreport.com/Arts_and_Culture/25-Christians-kidnapped-in-Peshawar
(I don’t know how reliable the source is), it said
that the Christian community in Peshawar was threatened last year either to convert to Islam or leave the city. Furthermore, the author, Abudlhadi Hairan, said that the “Taliban have entered the city in thousands” and that the author felt that Peshawar would ultimately fall to the terrorists.
No, I’ve never posted before. I’ve always relied on others to find and post the news for me to read! But since no one had reported on this here at FR, I thought that I would give it a whirl.
A different (better) article:
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?202231
says that NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti and Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour denies any threats by militants to Peshawar.
...how reassuring...
Islamo_Thugs and Criminals....
where is the Pak Govt? the Millitary?
why do these Murderers get away with this?
Musharif was in their Pocket, and Pakistan has no friendship with Us.
it is all a LIE.
Keep up the good work.
A home run first post. Thank you. I know this is a news flash, but I did a search on NPR for key words “christians” and “peshawar” and the only references were for a few movie reviews.
Send Rice in and have her promise $50 million and one goat in aid.
Isn’t that part of her playbook?
“One major mistake in your post...NEVER admit to even the potential of errors in your post. NEVER APOLOGIZE!”
Oops! My bad!
(Uh oh, I did it again!)
....Thanks for the advice, rottndog. :)
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