Pakistani Christian Journalist and Close Aide of Slain Minorities Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, Receives Death Threats
By Champion Bonaventure (ANS)
Special to ASSIST News Service
SARGODHA, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- A close aide of slain Christian Minorities Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, and a journalist who features stories about the persecution of both Jews and Christians in Pakistan, has received numerous death threats.
The journalist, who for security reasons, has asked not to be named, says that he has received a hand-written letter from suspected Islamist militants hurling death threats at him. This follows on from numerous anonymous threatening cell phone calls.
“I am living under constant fear for my life,” he told ANS.
The journalist says that he believes that the threats may have come from a now defunct Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban group.
Mr. Bhatti, who was the first Federal Minister for Minorities from 2008 until he was assassinated on March 2, 2011 in Islamabad. He was an outspoken critic of Pakistan's blasphemy laws and the only Christian in the Cabinet. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for his killing and called him a blasphemer of Muhammad.
“The martyred Shahbaz Bhatti was planning to appoint me as his personal media adviser and, a couple of months before his untimely death, he had even donated me with a computer for this purpose,” he said.
The journalist says that he believes he is being targeted because his mission was the same of that of Mr. Bhatti, which was to “repeal the black controversial blasphemy Laws and forge interfaith peace, harmony and love.”
Speaking from an undisclosed location, he said that he had been widely reporting worldwide on Bhatti’s “courageous work to repeal the blasphemy laws and to secure equal social stature for Pakistani Christians as well as other religious minorities in the country.”
He has also written about the “atrocities against Pakistani Christians by Muslims,” adding that this is why “the fanatic Muslims and defunct Muslim militant groups turned against me.”
The letter he received, the journalist told ANS, had ominously stated that he was their “next target” as he had repeatedly called for the “repeal of the black blasphemy laws” and thus he had “desecrated Islam.”
Making use of the opportunity, the journalist appealed to “the whole world” to pray for him and for international unions of journalists “to rescue him from the deathtraps installed in every nook and cranny.”
He also appealed to Western Christian organizations and governments to “take it very seriously” and “save him from the claws of Muslim militants.”
The Christian journalist was interviewed by ANS during the memorial service for Shahbaz Bhatti held in Islamabad on Saturday, April 9, 2011, the he was wearing garment like Muslim men in order to keep himself hidden among the masses.
For more information, please contact Dan Wooding at assistnews@aol.com
Champion Bonaventure is a freelance journalist based in Pakistan.
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