RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — More than 160 Christian prisoners ended a two-day hunger strike March 22 after authorities in Pakistan’s Punjab province permitted them to resume religious services, a nongovernmental organization worker said.
On that day, staff members at Adiala Central Jail, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, agreed to reopen a laundry room that had been used for Christian services until authorities filled it with an overflow of new inmates in early March, Sohail Johnson of Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan (SLMP) told Compass Direct news service (CD).
Adiala Deputy Superintendent Noor ul Haq Hassan denied to CD that Christians had been refused access to their worship room or that a hunger strike had taken place. But according to Johnson, Christian inmates had not been able to use the prayer room for more than a week when they began their hunger strike March 21.
Jail official Saifullah Gondal "wanted to send a message to the Christians that this was not their church or chapel, just a laundry hall," said Johnson, whose SLMP works with Christian prisoners throughout Punjab.
Share with others: