South Korean Missionaries Blamed for Chinese Couple's Slay in Pakistan
Pakistan shifted the blame on South Korean religious groups for the slaying of a Chinese couple in southwestern Baluchistan province. Authorities said the two came to the country and were involved in preaching to a Muslim community. They also called for a review of the issuance of visas to Chinese nationals.
Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Lisi, 26, were kidnapped and killed in the provincial capital of Quetta on May 24. Kidnappers later released a video of the bloodied Yang taking his final breaths. The Islamic State immediately owned responsibility for the incident.
Pakistani Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan on Monday revealed that the slain couple entered Pakistan on business visas but "instead of engaging in any business activity they went to Quetta and under the garb of learning Urdu language ... were actually engaged in preaching."
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Global Times, China's national English-language newspaper, highlighted Khan's statement. In its editorial, the publication accused South Korean religious groups of converting people in China, an officially atheist nation, and proselytizing in Muslim countries where such activities are forbidden and may even result in death sentences.
"South Korean missionaries have been conducting underground missionary activities in China since at least a decade ago. Many missionary organizations are even sponsored by the (South Korean) intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Service," it quoted Chu Yin, an associate professor at University of International Relations, as saying.
Global Times further cited a young Chinese person who related the modus operandi of religious groups. According to him, South Korean missionaries attracted Chinese students like him to a church where they will be offered an all expense paid trip to Seoul to be trained as missionaries themselves.
Many students purportedly decided to go with them under the cover of being an exchange scholar or postgraduate student. They will then be sent to dangerous Muslim countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, where proselytizing is forbidden and can draw the capital punishment.
