Akash Bashir, a 20-year-old volunteer security guard, sacrificed himself when he blocked a suicide bomber from entering St John’s Catholic Church in Lahore, Pakistan exactly 10 years ago, on Sunday, 15 March, 2015. As he locked his arms around the terrorist, moments before the explosion, his final words were: “I will die but I will not let you go in.”
His martyrdom saved the lives of more than a thousand faithful inside the church at the time. The Vatican declared him Servant of God in February 2022, paving the way for him to become the very first saint in the Muslim-majority country’s history.
Churches in Pakistan began recruiting volunteer security guards after two suicide bombers killed 127 and injured 250 in an attack on the Anglican All Saints Church in Peshawar in September 2013. In an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Akash’s mother said that her son “kept insisting for three months that he wanted to guard the church”, adding that the young man “was ready to sacrifice his life if God gave him a chance to protect others”.
On the fateful day, Akash prevented the attacker from entering the church, forcing him to detonate his suicide vest outside. Two other people were also killed, but an even larger scale tragedy was prevented.
His mother recalled that she “was washing clothes in the house” when Akash left for church that Sunday. “He was wearing all white. Moments later I heard the firing of weapons outside. Then our street thundered with explosions… He was a simple boy who died in the path of the Lord.”
Local Christian pastor Samuel Ashan Khokhar assisted in the morgue after the bodies were transferred there. He recounted: “It was a moving moment when I saw the boy’s face. Although lifeless, I was struck by his beauty, I was deeply touched by the smile and serenity that emanated from Akash’s face. He radiated a luminous and sacred presence that recalled the first Christian martyrs.”
Within minutes of Akash’s sacrifice, a second suicide bomber targeted the nearby Protestant Christ Church. More than 10 people were killed and dozens injured in the second blast.
The roots of Christianity in Pakistan go all the way back to the first century. St Thomas the Apostle first arrived in Kerala on the Indian subcontinent in 52 AD before visiting the present-day Punjab province where the majority of Pakistan’s Christians live to this day. He is believed to have been martyred in Chennai, India in 72 AD.
There are an estimated three million Christians in Pakistan today, comprising less than two percent of the population. They often live in extreme poverty and are routinely treated as second-class citizens, even though freedom of religion is ostensibly guaranteed by the constitution. Indeed, the country was originally envisioned as a haven for religious minorities where non-Hindus could escape India’s caste system.
The nation’s draconian blasphemy laws are also frequently misused against Christians, often as part of personal vendettas. For example, Asia Bibi, a Catholic mother of five, endured eight years on death row for blasphemy after co-workers accused her of insulting the prophet Mohammed during an argument. She was eventually acquitted in 2018.
More recently, on 16 August, 2023, the city of Jaranwala in Punjab was shaken by a wave of violence which Pakistan’s bishops described as “the worst tragedy against Christians” in the country’s history. Nearly a thousand people were forced to flee their homes after a mob torched dozens of churches and hundreds of Christian family homes. The rampage began following allegations that two Christian brothers had torn pages out of a <em>Qur’an</em> – a crime punishable by life imprisonment.
Many Christian families lost all their possessions in the Jaranwala riots, and the mob also desecrated a Christian cemetery. Tragically, the police failed to respond before the situation spiralled out of control. Even though at least 5,000 people committed acts of violence that day, less than 400 have been arrested. Out of those detained, 228 were later released on bail and 77 had the charges against them dropped.
While living in fear of further violence, Pakistani Christians’ education and employment options are extremely limited. Many Christian children are forced to labour in inhumane conditions, and girls are especially vulnerable to mistreatment, including sexual assault and forced marriage.
In April 2020 in Faisalabad, Maira Shahbaz, a 14-year-old Catholic girl, was bundled into a car by three armed men, drugged, repeatedly raped and then blackmailed with a video of the abuse. She was then forced to convert to Islam and marry one of her captors. There was CCTV footage of her kidnapping, and the case went to Lahore High Court. Her abductor insisted she was over 16 – the minimum age of marriage in Pakistan – using a fake birth certificate, while her mother produced original documents to prove her real age. Shockingly, the court ruled in the man’s favour and forced Maira to return to his home. She eventually managed to escape but is in hiding with her family to this day, due to death threats after being accused of apostasy. Up to a thousand girls from minority faith backgrounds suffer a similar fate in Pakistan every year.
ACN’s help in Pakistan includes scholarships and pastoral programs for disadvantaged Christian children, as well as Mass stipends for priests and formation support for seminarians. The pontifical foundation has also assisted the Church in Pakistan with emergency aid following anti-Christian attacks and funded construction projects, such as the building of churches. ACN is also actively advocating on behalf of persecuted Christians in Pakistan and other countries around the world, striving to give a voice to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are so often forced to suffer in silence.
The tenth anniversary of Akash Bashir’s martyrdom offers a poignant reminder that Christians are persecuted more often than the members of any other religion in the world today. Let us reflect on what we can learn from the courage and perseverance of those who risk their lives just to be able to live out the faith we share with them.
<em>(The site of Akash Bashir’s martyrdom © ACN).</em>
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