11th Oct, 2012 Lahore Pakistan: A day ago we rescued and provided shelter to a teenage Christian boy Ryan Stanton from Karachi along with his family.

Yesterday, the local police station has registered an FIR against him under section 295-C and Anti-Terrorism Act and Section 29 of the Telegraph Act.

This is the first Blasphemy case in Pakistan in which Anti –Terrorism Act’s section has been included. We have observed that Pakistani society is becoming more hostile and targeting teenage Christians is a new episode of Persecution. Earlier Rimsha Masih was targeted by the Islamic cleric and now Ryan Stanton was the next target.

While talking to Ryan, we got the fact that his phone was misused by few of his friends who were forcing him to convert to Islam, which was instantly refused. This anger of jealous friend put him in to a life risk when from his personal Cell phone a blasphemous text message was sent.

On 8th October, before we rescued the family, dozens of violent people tried to drag Ryan to the police station to admit and surrender but his mother wisely handled the situation and then in next few hours they were out of the compound of SSGC. The Residents of the SSGC colony waited till the morning and when the family did not arrive back  home then they first ransacked the house and then burnt the left over belongings.

Ryan was amongst few lucky people who managed to be safe before arrested or killed by the mob. Currently our Foundation is looking two options either we will contest the case and prove him innocent or help him to find new safe heaven. We request the international community to raise their voices for the misuse of the Blasphemy law in Pakistan.

 The Copy of the FIR.

World Vision in Progress  with the help of Our Partners Rescue Christians again reached the Christian families of Maharabadi –Islamabad.  Which had fled from there on 16^th and 17^th August,2012  after Rimsha Masih, a Pakistani girl of 14, was arrested in a poor suburb in Islamabad after a neighbor accused her of burning papers containing verses from the Quran, in breach of Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws.

On September 7, 2012, the court had granted bail to Rimsha against two surety bonds of Rs500, 000 each. She was then flown by a helicopter to an undisclosed location after her release from jail.

When she was arrested, Christian families had to flee to save their lives from the Muslims of the neighborhood . Many of them were being beaten by the mob on the day this incident happened. Angry mob had planned to set their house on fire, so they ran for their lives on the same midnight leaving their houses opened. Many of families took shelter in different Churches and community centers and some of  them found themselves secure in the forest in Sector G-9/4 .

Since then World Vision in Progress  and its Partners Rescue Christians are  helping the people, by providing them food and after the release of Rimsha on bail WVIP started helping the families to get rented homes in other areas of Islamabad.

On 2^nd October, Farrukh H. Saif Executive Director of WVIP helped more 25 families to take safe-homes. So far WVIP  and Rescue Christians has helped 75 families of Maharabadi –Islamabad and we are still looking forward to help more families in the coming days.

After three weeks in a high security prison, Rimsha Masih has left jail a day after being granted bail. She was escorted under a sheet from the prison by an armed guard and flown from the area in a helicopter to a secret location.  The 14-year-old, who is accused by a neighbour of desecrating the Koran by burning its pages, was granted bail on September 7 by Judge Mohammad Azam Khan. She was granted bail based on two sureties of Rs.500,000 and now concerns have been raised about her security as fears rise about attacks from Islamic extremists.

Nonetheless, Rimsha has become the first person ever accused of blasphemy to have been granted bail.
This is perhaps due to developments earlier in the week when one of Rimsha’s accusers, mullah Khalid Jadoon Chishti, was arrested on suspicion of tampering with the evidence against her.