Christians: The Forgotten Victims of the Indo-Pakistani Conflict

Courage Media ^ | 5/9/25 | Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

[EnderWiggin1970]

After Pakistani militants attacked Indian-administered Kashmir in late April, gunning down 26 tourists and escalating a new series of offensives in the ongoing Indo-Pakistani conflict, media has drawn attention to the sectarian perspectives of Pakistani Muslims and Hindu nationalists in India, as well as more ameliorating voices in the region. The perspective of Christians in the region, however, has gone largely ignored. It is worth noting that Christians as well as Hindus were targeted for their ethno-religious status in the Kashmiri attack, and that this was by no means the first time that Christians were caught in the crossfire. Trends indicate that the scope and intensity of the persecution of Christians in the developing world, both by state and non-state actors (and often in tandem), are both worsening. During peacetime, Christians and other religious minorities may enjoy slight respite, but their suffering inevitably escalates with outbursts of sectarian conflict. Why, then, the silence from Western commentators?

About 1.3-1.6% of the Pakistani population is Christian, most of whom live in the province of Punjab. The vast majority of them are Dalit Christians, descended from lower-caste Hindus who converted in order to escape the caste system during the British Raj. Most are rural-dwelling, low-income workers, occupying low-status jobs and enduring associated prejudice and disfavor. Their status is doubly threatened: as both as religious minority and an ethnic identity which is considered low-status, Christians are frequently subjected to violence, with Islamic terror attacks often targeting their communities. Churches have been bombed regularly in the last ten years, and sporadically since Wahhabism began to exert its insidious influence in the region in the 1980s and 1990s; several attacks, like the Taliban’s Easter attack in Lahore...

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TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: christian; india; pakistan; persecution

[EnderWiggin1970]

I served on the board of a Pakistani Christian ministry and support an Indian Christian ministry across the border in Punjab, so this is near to my heart. At a children's home in Lahore that the first ministry runs they could hear the explosions of the missile strikes near them the other day. But the real problem for Christians in the region isn't so much the fighting as the lack of legal protection and absence of punishment for even the most crass and obvious persecution by Islamic and Hindu persecutors, as reflected in this article.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

It is worth noting that Christians as well as Hindus were targeted for their ethno-religious status in the Kashmiri attack, and that this was by no means the first time that Christians were caught in the crossfire.

They weren't "caught in the crossfire". The terrorists were looking to kill non-Muslims, so the Christians and the Hindus were targets. Buddhists and Sikhs would also have been murdered if they'd been among the tourists.

[Leaning Right]

The late (and not so great) Pope Francis cared nothing about massacred Christians in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere.

Let’s hope that this new pope has a better outlook.

[Migraine]

I have great admiration for the type of ministry you represent.

[arthurus]

I was going to post but you already said it. Reporters don’t understand that yet.