A pastor in the northern region of Sindh Province is recovering after being kidnapped, drugged and beaten severely last month by Muslims. Yousaf Masih, 33, was abducted near his home on Sept. 12 and held hostage for two days before his captors dumped him along a road nearly 600 miles away, Compass Direct reported. His abductors ordered Masih to stop "praying for Muslims" in his Baptist church in Jacobabad. Married with two young children, Masih is undergoing treatment for his injuries. He is the second Protestant pastor kidnapped and tortured by Islamist extremists within the past four months. Elsewhere, a court in Faisalabad has sentenced a mentally handicapped Christian to life in prison. On Sept. 25, Shahbaz Masih, 26, was found guilty of blasphemy against the Quran, despite medical evidence of his manic-depressive condition, Compass reported. A Pakistan penal code prohibits the conviction of a person who suffers "unsoundness of mind," Masih's lawyer Khalil Tahir said. Mus
lim cleric Qari Mohammed Rafiq accused Masih of tearing up leaflets containing verses from the Quran and scattering them at a shrine near Faisalabad. Tahir plans to appeal the sentence. Meanwhile, a court earlier this month issued a warrant for the arrest of a Muslim father who abducted his two small children from their Christian mother, Compass reported. On Sept. 13, Joshua, 5, and Miriam, 3, were taken by Abdul Ghaffar from the Lahore Family Court shortly after beginning a two-hour court-supervised visitation session. Seven years ago, the children's mother, Maria Samar John, then 17, was kidnapped and forcibly married to Ghaffar.
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