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CV NEWS FEED // Violence and discrimination against Christians in Pakistan have surged to unprecedented levels in 2025, according to a new report that documents a sharp rise in forced conversions, abductions, sexual assaults, and killings.
The findings, published by Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP), paint a dire picture for the nation’s Christian minority, who increasingly find themselves targets of both social hostility and legal injustice.
International Christian Concern (ICC), which has long monitored the plight of Pakistan’s Christian minority, called the findings a “grotesque culmination” of systemic injustice in a recent emailed press release.
“This is a nation where Christian girls are stolen from their families, forcibly converted, and married off to their abusers, where a false blasphemy accusation can ignite a lynch mob, and where justice is a privilege reserved for the majority Muslim population,” ICC President Jeff King said.
The persecution is deeply intertwined with Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws, which are often misused to settle personal scores or suppress religious minorities. ICC’s data confirms that, as of January, at least 20 Christians remain imprisoned on blasphemy charges, collectively serving more than 134 years for alleged crimes they did not commit.
“This is not progress,” ICC stated. “It’s a regression into a dark age of intolerance, fueled by extremist ideology and a complicit government.”
As CatholicVote has previously reported, these laws and the culture surrounding them create an environment where Christians live in fear — vulnerable not only to mobs but also to a legal system that rarely offers justice. Even baseless accusations can destroy families, ruin lives, or lead to deadly vigilante violence.
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Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List ranks Pakistan as the eighth-most dangerous country in the world for Christians, citing unchecked religious violence and a legal system that enables persecution rather than preventing it.
While local authorities have routinely failed to act, ICC is now urging the global community to respond. The organization is calling on the United States, the United Nations, and other international bodies to pressure Pakistan to repeal its blasphemy laws, defend religious minorities, and hold perpetrators accountable.
“For too long, Pakistan has cloaked its systemic persecution in silence and impunity,” King said. “The world must wake up to this crisis and hold Islamabad accountable for its shameful record.”
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