Welsh Christians from Newport gathered to remember the victims of the Lahore Twin Bomb attack that occurred on March 15th this year, in which 27 people were killed and a further 87 were injured, and to learn about the ongoing persecution of the millions of Christians in Pakistan.
The service at New Seasons Church in Newport was presided over by Bishop Winston Taylor, who invited Wilson Chowdhry Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association to share his testimony as a reformed drug user, who turned to Christ and now champions the cause of Pakistani Christians. Pastor Mehboob Ellahi who runs an Urdu Fellowship in Newport, also prayed at the service dedicated to Pakistan.
Mr Chowdhry was brought up in a Christian family and his father Waheeb Chowdhry started up the first Asian Christian Church in the UK back in 1969, in Dalston, London. During his time studying a biochemistry degree at Kings College London, Wilson fell into a Ketamine addiction, but through divine intervention by God, and help from a former school colleague who met him in the street one day, he turned his life around and immediately terminated his drug use.
Mr Chowdhry spoke of the intense pressures faced by Pakistani Christians. He said:
“86% of Pak-Christians work as domestic servants, sewage workers or are in bonded/indentured labour, where they pay of debts of between £7 – £50, through a life of modern slavery, where there children get caught up in the same debt.”
Mr Chowdhry elaborated on this problem, he said:
“Christians in Pakistan are the lowest paid and worst treated underclass only 7% attain an adequate level of literacy. They are bullied in schools, their young girls are abducted, raped and forced into Islamic marriage at the rate of 700 per year, parents are frightened of sending their children to schools for theses reasons and the constant attempts to proselytise children into the Islamic faith illustrated by the Governments requirement for the mandatory subject of Islamic studies.”
Severe bomb attacks and frequent false accusations of blasphemy, have let to a mass exodus of Pakistani Christians to nations such as Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia, nations that have not signed UN Conventions for asylum, which has resulted in Pak-Christians being re-persecuted. The BPCA are opening a new school in Thailand that desires to tackle the problem of illiteracy amongst the children of refugees and asylum seekers.
Mr Chowdhry believes that more needs to be done by Britain to protect Pakistani Christians in the homeland and those seeking asylum. He is challenging western nations to open their doors to Christian asylum seekers, believing they can only flee persecution in nations with a Christian predominance.
Bishop Winston Taylor was moved by the message shared by Mr Chowdhry and commented on the suffering church of Pakistan, he said:
“Persecution of any type is wrong, but the manner and scale of the persecution faced by Pakistani Christians and other minorities beggars belief. That any supposed democratic country can leave any citizens this helpless, is indicative of poor governance. Our church will continue to pray for victims in Pakistan especially the Christian community who are clearly being targeted.”