Pakistan Persecution: Jaranwala Riots Update

Join us for the International Day for the Unreached on Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2025.

Pakistan is home to more than 782 unreached people groups, and ranks eighth among the most dangerous countries in the world for Christians, according to Open Doors’ World Watchlist. Among the more than 244,100,000 people who live in this country squeezed between India and Afghanistan, 96 percent are Muslim and 99 percent have yet to hear the good news about Jesus.

In August last year, thousands of Muslims went on a rampage in Jaranwala, Punjab province, Pakistan, ransacking, looting and/or burning more than 25 churches and 89 Christian homes, while damaging another 400 or so.

Of the 5,213 Muslim suspects, 380 were arrested and 4,833 are free. Of those arrested, 228 were released on bail, and charges were dropped for 77. Trials of the 12 facing anti-terrorism court have not begun, and 40 percent of the Christians who lost property still await government compensation. (April 22, CDI-MSN)

Last month, Pervaiz Masih, accused of writing the blasphemous content that fueled the Jaranwala riots and falsely implicating Christian Raja Masih and his brother Rocky Masih, was sentenced to death and heavily fined. The court acquitted Pervaiz’s Christian relatives, Shahid Aftab and Dawood William, finding them innocent of charges of helping Pervaiz fabricate false evidence.

See this Voice of the Martyrs report on the Christians who suffered greatly in Jaranwala:

Father God, please have mercy. All throughout Pakistan, but especially in Punjab, those with evil intent often fabricate evidence to falsely accuse Christians of blasphemy, giving an excuse for violent mobs of Muslims to destroy churches and homes, beating and even killing believers. Not only that, but if innocent Christians are convicted of blasphemy in a court of law, they could face prison and even the death sentence. Please fight for Your children, Lord. Come to their rescue. Surround them with Your angel armies and protect them from persecution and harm. Deepen their faith. Ground them in Your Word. Strengthen their love. Use every Christian in Pakistan to shine Your light so brilliantly in the terrible darkness of Islam, Muslims will throng to Jesus like moths to a flame.

Lord, thank You for the acquittal of Christians falsely accused of blasphemy. Please comfort the nearly 500 families who have lost so much. Fix their eyes not on what they have lost, but on You. Fill them with hope. Increase their faith. Deepen their love. Empower them to forgive and show mercy such as no Muslim in that area has ever seen before. Speak through them, love through them in such powerful ways their persecutors, and even all Muslims in Punjab, will repent of their sins, forsake the terrible violence and hatred of Islam, and seek Jesus. Visit every Muslim, especially the thousands who have engaged in violence against Christians, in their dreams at night and show them their terrible crimes and their need for a Savior. Talk to them throughout the day and give them visions that lead them to repentance. Break the chains that bind them to false religion and demons of violence, and lift the veil from their eyes so they will see You as You truly are. Ruin everything they trust in; give them no peace until they fall to their knees in fear of You and repentance. Out of this terrible tragedy, Lord, we ask You to bring forth eternal good. Build Your kingdom in Punjab. For every Christian who is persecuted, bring 1,000 Muslims to faith in Christ. Lord, so many Pakistanis have never heard Your good news because Islam forbids them to convert. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Set the peoples of Punjab and all of Pakistan free to seek You and find You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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