LAHORE, Pakistan — Police in Pakistan on Friday charged a pastor with making false allegations after he admitted that a gunshot wound he had blamed on Islamic extremists was self-inflicted, sources said.
The Rev. Eleazar Sidhu, pastor of a Presbyterian church in Kukranwala village in the Khanuwana area of Jaranwala, Faisalabad District, had filed a case with police alleging that Muslim extremists on Sept. 3 ordered him to recite the Islamic creed and shot him when he refused.
On Sept. 14, however, a termination letter to Pastor Sidhu by the Rev. Altaf Khan on behalf of the Board of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan appeared on social media stating that he had been suspended from the Presbyterian Myong-Sang Nasreth Church in Kukranwala village on Sept. 13 after he “voluntarily confessed” to colleagues and friends that the injury was self-inflicted.
Pastor Sidhu admitted to “planning this whole act without any fear, duress or pressure,” Pastor Khan stated, adding that the church did not want to make “any conclusions since the matter is sub-judice,” but that it was ending his employment contract and any professional ties with him “until the matter comes to its logical conclusion.”
A video that appeared on social media the next day, Sept. 15, shows Pastor Sidhu making a confession in front of a police officer.
“I did it because of stress. I wanted police protection. I threw the pistol in a canal,” he says in the video.
The officer replies, “Pastor you are a brother. We came...
A new exchange of sharp political statements has emerged after US President Donald Trump made claims on Truth Social that were directly rejected by Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghaliba...