A minister whose mother and 19 other family members were murdered by terrorists a decade ago has told of how he was able to resist revenge.

Rev Aftab Gohar says he found peace through Jesus Christ after a double suicide bomber attack at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan on September 22 2013.

There were 122 people killed and 250 injured in the bombings.

The parishioners had just left the church for a meal in the grounds when the bombers struck.

Among them was Mr Gohar’s 79-year-old mother, Iqbal Gohar, as well as his nieces, nephews, cousins, uncles, aunts and friends.

The minister, who oversees Eddleston, Peebles Old Parish, and Stobo and Drumelzier churches in the Scottish Borders, said his relatives “died for their faith”.

Although Pakistan’s official religion is Islam, the country’s constitution gives citizens freedom of faith.

However, religious minorities are often attacked and the country’s blasphemy laws have been used to discriminate against non-Muslims.

Mr Gohar believes the law is used as a means to justify attacks, such as a number of church and house burnings in Jaranwala near Faisalabad, Pakistan, last month.

Open Doors, a charity that supports persecuted Christians around the world, ranked Pakistan in seventh place in its top 50 countries where Christian persecution is most rife.

Reflecting on the attack, Mr Gohar said: “It was a very hard time for us all and I was questioning ‘why did it happen to those who were very regular churchgoers?’

“Those who didn’t go to church on that day, did they do the right thing?

“The Bible says ‘when you are persecuted because of your faith in Jesus, you are blessed’. They all died for their faith.

“It was hard for me to forgive those responsible but with the strength of God I did so and freed myself from the extra burden of hatred and revenge.”

He added: “On the cross, Jesus prayed for those who were crucifying him: ‘Forgive them Father, they don’t know what they are doing’.

“Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ – a lesson that some people find impossible to follow.”

Last week Mr Gohar and a number of campaigners handed a petition to Syed Zahid Raza, consul general of Pakistan for Scotland and Northern Ireland, at the Consulate of Pakistan in Glasgow.

The petition called on Pakistan’s government to improve safety for religious minorities, and for the blasphemy law to include punishing those who destroy Bibles or burn down churches and homes.

Mr Gohar says he was inspired by Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker who helped Jewish people escape the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The minister commented: “She said ‘forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuff of hatred’.

“It is a power that breaks chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.”

The minister was ordained into the Church of Pakistan in 1995, having come to Scotland to study at the University of Edinburgh in 1998-1999.

He later came back to Scotland to work as a full-time minister in 2008.

Mr Gohar and his wife Samina and their two adult sons, Shahan and Zeeshan, are now British citizens.

Shahan married in Pakistan last year.

Mr Gohar says the loss of his family was felt strongly at the wedding.

Rt Rev Sally Foster-Fulton, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Pakistan as they mark the anniversary of this horrific and unjustified attack on peaceful churchgoers.

“We are united in sorrow as we reflect on the impact this atrocity had on the families of the victims and survivors and sadly Christians continue to be persecuted today.”

She added: “The Church continues to engage with ecumenical and international partners on the misuse of the blasphemy law and we call on the government of Pakistan to redouble its efforts to protect minority groups.”

The Consulate of Pakistan in Glasgow was contacted for comment.

OPINION – FAITH MATTERS

We rarely take a position as an organisation, to suggest that a country is no longer safe for Christians. However, repeated attacks against Christians in Pakistan and the recent attacks on churches and Christians in Jaranwala, have one thing in common. They are based on Christians simply being accused of blasphemy.

Repeated governments of Pakistan have failed to stop such attacks. They have failed to challenge and implement educational measures in schools to defend the rights of minorities, yet Pakistan has relied on western aid and arms for decades. It is time that Pakistan be told that such attacks against Christians cannot be tolerated without serious impacts on exports to the country. 

Many Pakistani politicians have played a dual approach in their relations with the West. They have talked about challenging extremism and terrorism, whilst quietly allowing Islamist extremists to operate from Pakistan. Let us not forget that Bin Laden was finally found to be resident in Abbottabad and it beggars belief that Government politicians and officials played the feigned ignorance approach to his residence in the country even though he was living in Pakistan for years.

We are at a point where Christians in Pakistan feel unsafe and liable to attack. This is not felt in a small section of Pakistani Christians but throughout the community. No doubt, they will be blamed for further ills and each attack is growing more violent and widespread against this vulnerable community.

Pakistan is no longer safe for Christians. We need to be clear that their lives are not cheap and that any further attacks will see sanctions and trade embargoes on the country.

Muslims in eastern Pakistan went on a rampage over allegations that a Christian man had desecrated the Koran, demolishing the man’s house, burning churches and damaging several other homes, police and local Christians have said.

The scale of the violence prompted the government to deploy additional police forces and send in the army to help restore order.

The attacks in Jaranwala, in the district of Faisalabad in Punjab province, erupted after some Muslims living in the area claimed they had seen a local Christian, Raja Amir, and his friend tearing out pages from a Koran, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting remarks on other pages.

Police chief Rizwan Khan said this had angered the local Muslims.

A mob gathered and began attacking multiple churches and several Christian homes, burning furniture and other household items.

Some members of the Christian community fled their homes to escape the mob.

Police eventually intervened, firing into the air and wielding batons before dispersing the attackers with the help of Muslim clerics and elders.

Authorities also said they have started launching raids in an effort to find all the perpetrators.

Dozens of rioters were arrested.

Police chief Bilal Mehmood told reporters they were also looking for Mr Amir, who went into hiding to escape the mob, and would detain him to determine whether he had desecrated the Koran.

Videos and photos posted on social media show an angry mob descending upon a church, throwing pieces of bricks and burning it.

In another video, two other churches are attacked, their windows broken as attackers throw furniture out and set it on fire.

Several policemen are seen in the videos watching the situation without intervening to stop the vandalism.

In yet another video, a man is seen climbing to the roof of the church and removing the steel cross after repeatedly hitting it with a hammer as the crowd down on the road cheered him on.

Khalid Mukhtar, a local priest, said most of the Christians living in the area had fled to safer places.

“Even my house was burned,” he added.

Mr Mukhtar said there are 17 churches in Jaranwala and he believes most of them were attacked.

The authorities did not immediately confirm that figure.

Mr Khan said additional police forces were later deployed in Jaranwala and an investigation was under way.

He said all involved in the attack would be prosecuted.

“Our first priority was to save the lives of all of the Christians,” he said.

Later in the evening, troops started arriving in Jaranwala to help the police.

Angry Muslims were urged to go back to their homes, allegedly with promises that the man who allegedly desecrated the Koran would soon be arrested.

A delegation of Muslim clerics also arrived in Jaranwala from the city of Lahore to express solidarity with the Christians.

Blasphemy accusations are common in Pakistan.

Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death.

While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, often just the accusation can cause riots and incite mobs to violence, lynching and killings.

In one of the worst attacks on Christians, a mob in 2009 burned an estimated 60 homes and killed six Christians in the district of Gojra in Punjab, after accusing them of insulting Islam.

Wednesday’s attack drew nationwide condemnation from top leaders and major political parties.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said he was “gutted” by the images coming out of Faisalabad.

“Stern action would be taken against those who violate law and target minorities. All law enforcement has been asked to apprehend culprits & bring them to justice,” he tweeted.

A senior Christian leader, Bishop Azad Marshall, appealed for help on social media and said he was “deeply pained and distressed”.

“We cry out for justice and action from law enforcement and those who dispense justice and the safety of all citizens to intervene immediately and assure us that our lives are valuable in our own homeland that has just celebrated independence and freedom,” he tweeted.

Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif also condemned the rampage, saying: “There is no place for violence in any religion.”

In the southern port city of Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, dozens of Christians rallied to denounce the attacks in Jaranwala.

Domestic and international human rights groups say blasphemy allegations have often been used to intimidate religious minorities in Pakistan and settle personal scores.

In December 2021, a Muslim mob descended on a sports equipment factory in Pakistan’s Sialkot district, killing a Sri Lankan man and burning his body publicly over allegations of blasphemy.

Read more: Man accused of blasphemy stoned to death by mob in Pakistan