India struggles to put out crop waste fires that fuel air pollution
Gagsina, IndiaReuters India’s efforts to reduce crop-waste burning, a major source of air pollution during the winter, by spending billions of rupees over the past four years have done little to avert a sharp deterioration in air quality. Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana states, part of the farm belt that borders the capital, New […]
Protesting farmers return to camp after storming Indian fort
New Delhi, IndiaAP Leaders of a protest movement sought Wednesday to distance themselves from a day of violence when thousands of farmers stormed India’s historic Red Fort, the most dramatic moment in two months of demonstrations that have grown into a major challenge of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Farmers demanding the repeal of new […]
Pakistani police say armed men damage church in land dispute
Lahore, PakistanAP A group of armed men vandalised a church in eastern Pakistan before fleeing the scene, a local police official said Monday. The incident in the village of Kala Shahkaku in Punjab province took place on Saturday and was apparently not sectarian but connected to a land dispute involving the church, according to police […]
India’s Dalits protest against plan to develop common land
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation Protests have flared in the Indian state of Punjab over a government plan to use common land for industrial development, a move that activists and analysts said last week would deny lower-caste Dalits their land rights. The state government last month approved a proposal to amend a 1964 law to include […]
Two Pakistani Christian brothers sentenced to death for blasphemy
World Watch Monitor A Pakistani court last week sentenced two Christian brothers to death for blasphemy. Since their arrest in 2014, Qaisar and Amoon Ayub had been held in District Jail Jhelum, in Punjab province, 200 kilometres north of Lahore, for allegedly posting “disrespectful material” on their website, according to AsiaNews. For security reasons the two […]
Indian Christian forum demands withdrawal of ‘bogus’ charges of forced conversions
World Watch Monitor The Christian Forum of Chhattisgarh state in India called on its political parties to commit to ensuring freedom of religion, as elections for the state’s legislative house took place on Monday, Catholic news agency UCAN reported. Meanwhile, several attacks on Christians were reported in the first week of this month, across a number […]
Pakistan PM appeals for calm after Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy
World Watch Monitor Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has urged the nation not to let a fraction of people incite them to take the law into their own hands over the decision of the Supreme Court to release a Christian woman who had been facing the death penalty for blasphemy. The security situation in Pakistan […]
Family of murdered Pakistani Christian MP open training centre for women
World Watch Monitor The family of the murdered Catholic MP Shahbaz Bhatti is opening an education centre for Christian women and girls in Khushpur, eastern Pakistan, reports AsiaNews. Khushpur, near Faisalabad in Punjab province, is the largest Christian settlement in Pakistan and the area where the former minister for minorities came from and where he is buried. A […]
PAKISTAN ELECTIONS: CHRISTIANS EXPRESS DISMAY AT LACK OF REPRESENTATION
With elections scheduled for later this month, ASIF AQEEL, of World Watch Monitor, looks the representation of Christians and other minority groups in Parliament in Pakistan…
Pakistani Christian dies after being set on fire by Muslim in alleged dispute over who should convert
World Watch Monitor A Christian woman from north-eastern Pakistan has died from her injuries after being set on fire by a Muslim man, who claims it was an accident and followed a discussion about which of them should convert if they were to marry. Asma Yaqoob, 24, died in a Lahore hospital on 22nd April […]