Johura Begum and her husband Bablu Miah.

Johura Begum, 42, of Pingna Bangladesh village said village authorities threatened to harm her grown daughters if her family didnot pay them 20,000 taka (US$283). Begum had invited seven converts from Islam, including three women, to take part in a river baptism. Only six men among 55 converts were baptized by the leaders of the Pentecostal Holiness Church of Bangladesh (PHCB), as the rest were intimidated by protesting Muslims; the next day, area Islamists with bullhorns shouted death threats to Christians. “The council member threatened me, saying I had to give him 20,000 taka or else we could not live here with honor, dignity and security,” Begum said. Begum said her husband is a day-laborer at a rice-husking mill, and that 20,000 taka was a “colossal amount” for them. She was able to borrow the money from a Christian cooperative, she said. Johura Begum said that when she became a Christian 20 years ago, area Muslims beat her and forced her to leave the village, though she was able to return three years later. Full Story

Buddhist members of an armed rebel group and their sympathizers are holding three tribal Christians captive in a pagoda in southeastern Bangladesh after severely beating them in an attempt to force them to return to Buddhism. Held captive since April 16 are Pastor Shushil Jibon Talukder, 55; Bimol Kanti Chakma, 50; and Laksmi Bilas Chakma, 40, of Maddha Lemuchari Baptist Church in the mountainous Khagrachari district. After taking the Christians captive on April 16, the sources said, the next day the armed Buddhist extremists forced other Christians of Maddha Lemuchari Baptist Church to demolish their church building by their own hands. The extremists first seized all blankets, Bibles and song books from the church building. The three Christians are being kept in a pagoda for 15 to 20 days as punishment for having left the Buddhist religion. “The pastor was beaten so seriously that he could not walk to the nearby pagoda,” said one source. Full Story

Barnabas Aid Prayer Focus Update October 2009

A Bangladeshi woman, Khainur, and her daughter Arifa have been brutally beaten by her husband following their conversion to Christianity. The beatings began when it emerged that their son, Jahirul, had became a Christian. Jahirul had moved to Sydney, Australia, in 2006 to attend university. In June 2009, his father started to pressure him to marry a Muslim woman, a plan the son rejected because of his Christian faith.

When the husband heard this, he became very angry and began to beat Khainur, accusing her of allowing their son to study abroad. She was also forbidden to talk to their son. Neither her relatives nor the police would help her, but Jahirul urged his mother to contact the Bangladeshi pastor who had first set him on the path to knowing Christ. The pastor became her only support. Before long, Khainur and her eldest daughter Arifa had also “found the love of Christ”.

In September, Khainur told her husband that she too had converted to Christianity. Enraged, he tied his wife and daughter up and brutally beat them in front of the younger daughters. He also burned a copy of the Bible, threatening to give them “similar treatment”. Arifa says, “We pray regularly that one day my father might find the love of Christ. I forgive him even if he beat me like a dog. I am not afraid to be burnt by my father as he did with the Bible.”