Swedish Christian Worker Reportedly Targeted by Punjabi Taliban

By C. J. Refsland on December 9, 2012 • ( 0 )

Saturday, December 8, 2012

By Jeremy Reynalds

Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

ISLAMABAD (ANS) — The Dec.3 assassination attempt against Bargeeta Almby, a 72-year-old female Christian charity worker from Sweden, was in all probability, made by the al-Qaeda-linked Punjabi Taliban.

A possible reason was that she had sided with two Christian priests accused of committing blasphemy, preliminary police investigations have indicated.

According to a story by Amir Mir of The News International, Almby, the managing director of the Full Gospel Assemblies (FGA), a church fellowship founded in the United States with congregations worldwide, was returning home from her Kot Lakhpat office. It was then that two unidentified motorcyclists shot her in the Model Town area of Lahore where she has long lived.

The Swedish charity worker, who is in critical condition at the Jinnah hospital, has been living in Pakistan for the past 38 years.

The News International said besides working to protect the Christian minority and promote Christian values, Almby was also running the FGA Church in the Bahar Colony area of Kot Lakhpat, a technical training institute, an adult literacy center and an orphanage in the provincial metropolis of Punjab.

The News International said according to preliminary investigations carried out by the Lahore police into the attack on Bargeeta, some Christian religious leaders associated with Full Gospel Assemblies Church Pakistan (FGACP), had been receiving life threats from some religious fanatics.

FGACP is the oldest church Pentecostal church in Pakistan,

The threats had forced a bishop and a priest working at FGA to go into hiding after being accused of having committed blasphemy. While Bishop Pervaiz Joseph is the leader of the Pastors’ Care Ministries and priest of the Gospel Church in Lahore, Pastor Baber George works with the Full Gospel Assemblies Church.

The News International said both Christian leaders were accused of committing blasphemy after raising the issue of misuse of the blasphemy law in a meeting with some religious leaders.

The religious leaders had accused Joseph and George of making insulting remarks against Muhammad.

However, Joseph and George had refuted the allegation, saying that the meeting was held as part of their interfaith work to build peace and harmony between Christians and Muslims, and they could not even think of committing blasphemy in such a sensitive meeting. But as a result of the increasing threats, Joseph and George had to leave their jobs as well as their homes, and were temporarily moved to a safer place along with their families.

Read the whole thing via Swedish Christian Worker Reportedly Targeted by Punjabi Taliban.