The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands the immediate abolishment of the blasphemy ban in the Pakistani government’s penal code in order to prevent further attacks on members of religious minorities.

On the first anniversary of a massacre of Christians in the city of Gojra (in Punjab province), the STP is calling for those who were responsible for the acts of violence to be punished and for more effective steps to be taken in protecting Christians and members of the Ahmadiyya movement. During the massacre, which began July 30, 2009 and lasted for several days, Muslim churches used by the Ahmadiyya and more than 100 houses of Christian families were burnt down. Nine minority members were murdered. "Despite the fact that the individuals responsible for these crimes are known, they continue to go unpunished because the provincial government covers up for them,” explained Ulrich Delius, the consultant for Asia at the STP. Christians make up less than two percent of the 160 million residents of Pakistan.

Gojra is no exception: "In one region of the country, believers are treated like animals. They are held in bondage, threatened, intimidated, subjected to physical violence and forced to convert,” criticized Father John Shakir Nadeem, a Catholic publicist und leading contributor of the Pakistani Bishops Conference. The Commission for Justice and Peace of the Pakistani Bishops Conference determined in June of 2010 that the number of forced conversions among Christians continues to increase. In 2008, 414 instances of forced conversion to Muslim beliefs were documented.

Even more shocking is the everyday violence Christians are subjected to due to the blasphemy ban. Christians and Ahmadiyya are regularly pointed out in order to sway the outcome of neighbourhood conflicts or to eliminate unwanted competitors. Since the blasphemy ban came into effect in 1986, 1,032 legal proceedings have been initiated. In 2009, 8 Christians and 57 Ahmadiyya were brought to court for blasphemy. The death penalty looms in the distance for those who are indicted. For most, the accusation of blasphemy alone, regardless of the outcome of the proceedings, is life threatening. On July 19, 2010 two brothers were murdered by people in masks after being tried for blasphemy. Their telephone numbers and addresses were found on a fake flyer that maligned the Koran. It is obvious that they were not the authors of the flyer, because no Christian would include personal information on a piece of blasphemous material.

On July 22, 2010 Zaibunnisa, a Christian, was released on a court order that found she was no longer suspicious. The now 60-year-old spent 14 years in jail without fair legal proceedings because she was suspected of blasphemy