ASIA/PAKISTAN - Fears for the Catholic headmaster's family

Kasur (Agenzia Fides) - Fear and insecurity prevail in Siddique Azam's family, headmaster in the village of Pernawa, in the district of Kasur in Punjab, who was beaten by fellow Muslims. The latter do not recognize the headmaster’s authority because they do not want to submit to a person of Christian religion, and that is why he was violently beaten in his office, and was ordered to resign (see Fides 06/10/2015). The man is now undergoing hospital treatment. One eye was severely damaged and his children fear that he could be attacked again.
For this reason, as Fides learns, his wife and children have asked him to leave teaching in the school. Nabila, his wife, teaches at St. Mary's Convent High School, in the nearby town of Bhai Pheru, always in Kasur district. They have six children: the twins Mishal and Sharjeel 16; Izen 14; twins Shameer and Aleena 10; Mishma 7. "The family spent three nights without sleeping, live in a state of terror and is traumatized", says to Fides lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill who visited the family in recent days. Azam's family has asked the police for protection. The police have arrested the teachers, authors of the beating.
"Azam’s case is just one of many examples of how Christians in Pakistan suffer from discrimination, abuse and violence. It is necessary to eradicate extremist and sectarian ideology that prevails in society", concluded the lawyer. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 12/10/2015).

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discrimination

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religious minorities

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