Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 632 | Wed 09 Feb 2022
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PAKISTAN: CHRISTIANS IN PESHAWAR GRAVELY IMPERILLED
by Elizabeth Kendal
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| Rev. William Siraj, Shaheedan-e-All Saints’ Church (facebook) |
On Sunday 30 January, in a well-planned targeted assassination, gunmen shot and killed Reverend William Siraj (75). The much-loved pastor had just commenced his drive home after leading worship at the Shaheedan-e-All Saints’ Church, Peshawar, north-west Pakistan, when two men on a motorbike ambushed the vehicle. Shot multiple times in the head, he died instantly. Though two other priests were in the car, they were not targeted. Rev. Patrick Naeem was treated briefly in hospital for a gunshot wound to the hand and a third priest in the car was unharmed. The funeral service for Rev. William Siraj was held at All Saints Peshawar on Monday 31 January. No-one has claimed responsibility for the assassination, which may have been intended as a warning.Shaheedan-e-All Saints’ Church [Martyrs of All Saints’ Church] was established in 2014, in memory of the 127 worshippers killed in the September 2013 terror attack on All Saints’ Peshawar, an attack claimed by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, the Pakistani Taliban). Located on the Ring Road on the outskirts of Peshawar, the small memorial church quickly became a magnet for local Christians, many of whom moved into the vicinity after the 2013 massacre. The assassination of Rev. William Siraj has left Peshawar’s Christian community rattled and re-traumatised. ‘We felt insecure before this,’ Naqqash Bhatti, a relative of his, told Reuters (31 January). ‘The feeling of insecurity increases when these kinds of incidents take place.’ Waheed Masih (36), who lives across from the church added, ‘The killing…has created panic and nobody wants to leave their homes due to fear and terror.’ Speaking to Reuters at the funeral, Protestant Bishop Humphrey Sarfaraz said he had requested the region’s top police official arrange more security for Christian clergy and Sunday services.
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| The road to Islamabad (Pakistan’s capital) and Rawalpindi (military headquarters) runs through Peshawar. |
In August 2021 Western counter-terrorism forces withdrew from Afghanistan, paving the way for the return of the Taliban. Because the Afghan Taliban has long had strong ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, many expected that the Afghan Taliban would support the ISI in its fight against the resurgent Pakistani Taliban (TTP). However, one of the first things the Taliban did after it captured Kabul was release from prison some 2300 hardcore militants, including many emboldened ISKP and TTP fighters and commanders. Long-time allies, the Afghan Taliban and the TTP have regularly provided each other with sanctuary. Both groups are aligned with al-Qaeda and nationalist in orientation. This puts both groups in conflict with Islamic State which is universalist and regards nationalist causes as un-Islamic. Based in Afghanistan, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) emerged in 2014 with the defection of TTP, al Qaeda and Taliban fighters active in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It continues to have many former TTP fighters in its ranks. Both groups are based along the Af-Pak border, essentially next door to each other: ISKP in Afghanistan’s adjoining eastern border provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar (the capital of which is Jalalabad); and TTP in Pakistan’s north-west Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the capital of which is Peshawar. Of all the cities in Pakistan, none is more vulnerable to terrorism than Peshawar. Both ISKP and TTP have inflicted terror there in the past and both are likely to escalate terror there in 2022.
While Afghanistan’s imperilled remnant secret Christians exist deep ‘underground’, Pakistan’s imperilled Christians have long been known, open, and ‘above ground’. They mostly live together in Christian communities, with churches and cathedrals that are well established. As individuals, Pakistani Christians have long lived with systematic discrimination, violent persecution, and gross insecurity. Today, Peshawar’s Christians are imperilled as individuals and as a group in the face of an enlarged and emboldened TTP and a determined ISKP. [Note: for several reasons, I (EK) suspect ISKP was responsible for the assassination of Siraj and the assassination of TTP spokesman Khalid Balti three weeks earlier.] Peshawar’s churches and Christian communities may be more at risk now than at any time in Pakistan’s history.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL:
* sustain and comfort the Christian community in Peshawar as it grieves the loss of Reverend William Siraj. We pray especially for Pastor Siraj’s congregation and extended family; may they be assured of God’s unfailing love, tender mercy, faithful provision and promised presence. We pray this specifically for Pastor Siraj’s widow, Shamim William, and his daughter, who is also a widow, having lost her husband in the 2013 terror attack on All Saints’ Peshawar. Lord have mercy!
* answer the prayers of Peshawar’s Christians for greater security: may troops be deployed to g`uard Christian clergy, churches, and communities; over it all, may the Lord of hosts deploy his angelic forces to watch over his imperilled precious children in these days of terror and insecurity.
‘Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me’ (Psalm 17:8-9 ESV).
* redeem these days of death and darkness to awaken many Pakistani Muslims to the threat posed by intolerant fundamentalist Islam; may the Holy Spirit move in power and grace, to open eyes, enlighten minds, and soften hearts; may a harvest be reaped among Pakistani Muslims made receptive to the Gospel.
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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CHRISTIANS IN PAKISTAN GRAVELY IMPERILLED
On Sunday 30 January, Reverend William Siraj (75) was driving home after leading worship at Shaheedan-e-All Saints’ Church in Peshawar, north-west Pakistan, when two men on a motorbike ambushed his vehicle. Shot multiple times in the head, the much-loved pastor died instantly. While no group has claimed responsibility for the targeted assassination, an enlarged and emboldened Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, the Pakistani Taliban) and a determined Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) are both active in the area. The departure of Western counter-terrorism forces from Afghanistan has opened the space for terrorist groups to compete, recruit and operate. Of all the cities in Pakistan, none is more vulnerable than Peshawar. Peshawar’s Christian clerics, churches and communities may be more at risk now than at any time in Pakistan’s history. Please pray.
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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate. She serves as Director of Research at Canberra-based Christian Faith and Freedom Inc (CFF) and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.
She has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016).