Pakistan (MNN) — On Friday, a Sri Lankan factory manager living in Sialkot, Pakistan was beaten and killed by a mob. Afterward, they burnt his body. He had been accused of tearing down posters bearing the name of the prophet Muhammed.
Both Sri Lankan and Pakistani leaders condemned the violence, and Pakistan’s prime minister says over 100 people have been arrested. Nehemiah with FMI says “Videos we have received show hundreds of men and young boys gathered at the site chanting slogans. And I’m very sad to say that in these videos, we can see rescue workers and police were there. But they were helpless because they know very well about the mobs’ aggression.”
The mob wasn’t led by terrorist leaders, but young boys. Nehemiah says, “These are teenagers who are killing people. This is what we are reporting and requesting people to pray for. These guys are very young. They don’t know anything about their religion, about Islam. They are just brainwashed. And they’re charged by TLP slogans.”
TLP
TLP refers to an extremist political and religious organization in Pakistan. The government banned them for a time and even held their leader in prison. But on the streets, their popularity has grown, along with their extreme ideology. Nehemiah says the Pakistani government recently struck a secretive deal with the TLP and released their leader.
Since violent ideology runs so deep in Pakistani society, Nehemiah says it will happen again. “Yet Pakistan’s leaders continue to support politics that stokes this violence. It’s very sad to say that Pakistani society is nurturing Frankenstein’s monsters in the name of Islam.”
FMI partners work in Sialkot, the city where the attack took place. Ask God to protect and strengthen them. Pray the love of Jesus would challenge fear and violence.
The header image shows a man riding to his home in Sialkot, Pakistan, where the violence took place. (Esa Mehdi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
