PUNJAB, Pakistan — A Pakistani pastor and his family in Punjab province have been living in fear for months after death threats from a murder suspect and repeated attacks on their house by police squads.
Pastor Christopher Manzer, 55, of Jhugian Baja Singh, said a Muslim man, Mohammad Nawaz, blames him for the loss of his wife. The pastor counseled her after she returned to her father having regretted converting to Islam.
Manzer said Nawaz has enlisted extremist Muslim groups to mount a wave of attacks on him.
“I’m a Christian pastor, and in Pakistan you know it is a trend to hurt the Christians,” Manzer said. “Most Christians are suffering very much.”
Nawaz considers the pastor responsible for his divorce and the subsequent deaths of his ex-wife and unborn baby after a botched abortion.
Nawaz’s uncle, a man identified only as Makha and whom Nishter colony police are seeking in connection with the murders of two Christian men in the past three months, has called the pastor twice telling him to leave town or die.
At the same time, officers from different police stations have beaten Manzer on five occasions.
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