The teenager from Punjab, Pakistan, has been attacked, tortured and arrested in a row that has sparked uproar in his village in Gujranwala district.
Please ask God to keep Simon and his family safe.
Release contacts in Pakistan say the row followed a dispute with another recycler who was not happy that Simon was gathering paper and bottles near the same religious monument as him. When burnt scraps of a Koran were allegedly found at the site last month, Simon got the blame.
Soon after Simon was arrested, a large mob broke into the police station and abducted him. They threatened to kill him and tortured him until local police called for back-up to bring the situation under control. Due to local unrest, Simon was twice transferred to other police stations. He is now being held in jail.
*We’ve changed Simon’s name for security reasons.
- Please pray for justice for Simon and his family: like many of Pakistan’s Christians, they are very poor and Simon’s father labours for Muslim landowners. Pray Simon will be released soon.
- Ask God to fill Simon with His peace and teach him how to trust his almighty Father through this ordeal.
- Pray that Pakistan’s authorities will do more to prevent abuse of the country’s widely misused blasphemy laws. Pray too that they will yield to international demands for legal reform.
UPDATES
We praise God for the release of Indian pastor Tom Uzhunnalil who had been abducted in Yemen in March 2016. The priest was seized during a raid by gunmen on a care home near Aden in which 16 people were killed. Please continue to pray for God’s people in Yemen, amid continuing hardship and conflict. (Source: Middle East Concern)
Please pray for our Iranian brothers Eskandar Rezaei and Soroush Saraei, who were reportedly re-arrested in July and are now being held at Adel-Abad prison. They have been verbally charged with ‘acting against national security’, and Soroush has also been charged with ‘forgery’. The two men were previously arrested at a prayer meeting in Shiraz in 2012, and served one and two-and-a-half-year sentences respectively. Pray that they will be freed and all charges dropped. (Source: Middle East Concern)
