Federal agents in Pakistan arrested a young Christian man under a blasphemy law mandating the death penalty for comments posted in Facebook chat groups under his name by unknown persons, his family said.
An 18-year-old Christian is still languishing in jail a month after winning bail in all three blasphemy cases against him as a trial court is delaying his release, his father said.
Religious freedom advocates strongly condemned deterioration of human rights in Pakistan at the 58th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, particularly continued abuse of the country’s harsh blasphemy laws and forced conversions of minority girls.
A village head kidnapped along with seven other Christians in central Nigeria was reportedly found dead on Monday.
In a significant legal victory against forced conversions and marriages in Pakistan, a civil court has annulled the marriage of a Christian woman who was given to a Muslim man as a child and coerced to convert to Islam and marry him, sources said.
The Supreme Court of Nigeria has upheld the death sentence for a Christian man who defended himself against an attack by Fulani herdsmen.
A 12-year-old Christian girl was reunited with her parents last week after being abducted two months ago by a Muslim neighbor who forcibly converted her to Islam and coerced her into marrying him, sources said.
A high court judge in Pakistan resigned last week after a media report exposed his alleged close ties with a criminal gang falsely charging Christians and others with blasphemy, sources said.
Muslim landowners in Pakistan abducted a Christian laborer, shaved his head and facial hair, blackened his face and paraded him on the back of a donkey for allegedly stealing wood from their property.
A Muslim man in Pakistan who twice abducted a Christian mother has since raped her, fraudulently converted her to Islam and fabricated an Islamic marriage, sources said.
