Islamabad, May 5 (IANS) Even though the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recently urged the US government to redesignate Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), the persecution of Christians continues to rise in Pakistan, demonstrating the urgent need for an international response, a report has highlighted.

Extremist groups in Pakistan have been attacking not only places of worship but entire communities, Mission Network News stated.

“They [extremists] will attack churches. They will go after families. And so there’s tremendous adversity that the Christian church deals with inside of Pakistan,” stated Greg Kelley of Unknown Nations which works with indigenous missionaries all over the world.

One of the most alarming patterns in Pakistan involve kidnapping, forced conversion and forced marriage of Christian girls, some as young as 12-year-old. Families in Pakistan often get little more than official notice that their daughter is now a Muslim wife, with courts offering little help.

Mob violence also takes place in Pakistan, particularly when Christians are accused or when conversions gain attention of influential figures. Kelley stated that international community’s pressure, especially from the US, can change the situation in Pakistan, the Mission Network News report stated.

In March, the USCIRF urged the US government to redesignate Pakistan as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).

In its annual report, the USCIRF – a US government advisory body separate from the State Department, that monitors and reports on religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the US President, the Secretary of State, and Congress – highlighted that religious freedom conditions in Pakistan continued along a troubling trajectory in 2025.

“The government continued to enforce its strict blasphemy law, impacting people of all faiths, including religious minorities. Increasing vigilante attacks and mob violence targeting religious minorities, specifically Ahmadiyya Muslims and Christians, contributed to an intensified climate of fear and intolerance,” the report detailed.

It mentioned that the Pakistani authorities continued to wield the blasphemy law and its death penalty provision to punish those deemed to have insulted Islam.

Last year, four individuals were sentenced to death for allegedly posting blasphemous content on social media. In January 2025, a mentally ill Christian man, Farhan Masih, was imprisoned on blasphemy and terrorism charges. Despite being acquitted, Masih could not return to his village out of fear for his safety.

Later, a sessions court sentenced another man to death after a member of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) accused him of ‘insulting religious sentiment’. The following month, the Lahore High Court removed from its case list Junaid Hafeez’s appeal hearing related to charges of blasphemy. Authorities have held Hafeez in solitary confinement since 2014, and a sessions court sentenced him to death in 2019. His trial has been pending since 2020, the report added.

–IANS

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