A pastor was shot and wounded by hardline Muslims earlier this month in Jaranwala, Pakistan, just two weeks after churches and Christian properties in the area were destroyed by an Islamist-inspired mob. Rev Eleazar Sidhu was returning home with an assistant after pastoral visits to church members on September 3 when two men stopped him. ‘One of the attackers pulled out a pistol and asked me to recite the Islamic Kalima, [profession of faith],’ he was able to state afterwards in the First Information Report (FIR) filed at the Saddar Police Station in Jaranwala. ‘When I refused and instead started to recite the Apostles’ Creed, the man opened fire, resulting in a bullet wound on the upper half of my chest [on the shoulder]. The assailants fled after the attack.’
