Wednesday, March 1, 2006

PAKISTANI PASTOR ABDUCTED, RELEASED AFTER 5 DAYS

By Sheraz Khurram Khan
Special Correspondent for Assist News Service in Pakistan

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Some unidentified people took hostage a Pastor of Full Gospel Assemblies Church, Lahore on Feb 16 and released him after inflicting torture on him for five days at an undisclosed place, sources have revealed.

These sources told ANS that Pastor Joseph Priam was going to pay gas bill to the bank when a car stopped near him. One of the men after alighting from the car covered pastor’s face with a handkerchief that left him unconscious. The pastor found him in a dark room when he came to his senses and noticed that he had been robbed of his gold ring and cash.

Rev Joseph’s captors tortured him callously. Not knowing why he was being exposed to this ruthless treatment Priam dared asking them (his captors) the reason.

“You are a Christian and your Christian brothers have published blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark that’s why we are going to kill you,” the sources quoted Priam as saying.

The pastor braved all the torture in the name of Jesus and told his captors that he would feel pride if he was killed in His name, they maintained.

Priam was kept in a pitch-dark room. His captors abused and slapped him. The pastor was not given anything to eat or drink during his five-day long captivity that led to shrinking of his kidneys, sources added.

ANS learnt that Priam’s captors huddled him into a car after five days and threw him on the road at 1:30 am on Feb 21 with his legs and arms tied.

Sources further said that the pastor managed to untie him after a great deal of struggle and came to his home by a rickshaw. The incident has forced the pastor to go in hiding, they said.