by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - In the third such incident this year, a Christian nurse has been hounded and threatened into hiding by Muslim colleagues who accused her of blaspheming against Islam last week, Morning Star News reports. Pakistan ranks 5th on the US Open Doors Watch List of countries where Christians are persecuted.
Sakina Mehtab, who works at the Punjab Institute of Mental Health in Lahore, told Morning Star News she is in fear for her life after Muslim colleagues marched on the hospital grounds shouting and accusing her of blasphemy. She went into hiding after receiving threats that she would be maimed and killed.
The Muslim accusers were angered that Mehtab had posted a video on WhatsApp of a Pakistani Muslim criticizing the response of Pakistani people and officials to a European Union Parliament resolution, Morning Star News said. Although there was no mention of religion in the video, Mehtab’s colleagues accused her of blasphemy and created havoc at the hospital before being dispersed.
“My life has been put at serious risk with this false allegation, and I don’t know how I’ll be able to resume work at the hospital with the fear that someone might attack me from nowhere. My fear is not unfounded,” Mehtab told Morning Star News.
Mehtab is the third Christian nurse this year to be accused of blasphemy and threatened by Muslim colleagues. Two Christian nurses were arrested on April 9 after removing stickers from old hospital furniture at their supervisor’s request. The police were called after a Muslim colleague accused them of blasphemy because one of the old stickers they removed had a verse from the Koran on it.