A 70-year-old woman christian convert from islam died 1st February from burns she suffered when unknown assailants in a Muslim-majority area about 150 miles northwest of the capital set her home on fire last month.

Rahima Beoa of Cinatuly village suffered 70% burns after the home she shared with her daughter and son-in-law, also converts, was set ablaze the night of January 7.

Murderous villagers were upset over her conversion to Christianity and that of her daughter and son-in-law.

At least 125 Hindu extremists here yesterday attacked one of the oldest and best-known churches in India's Madhya Pradesh state, Masihi Mandir Church, brutally beating one of the fleeing members.

The mob from the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bajrang Dal arrived as the third of the church’s four Sunday services was about to begin, forcibly making their way into the church compound angrily shouting slogans.

They came on Jeeps, said eyewitness James Daniel, beating drums and shouting slogans in Hindi, ‘He who talks in favor of only Hindus will rule the nation’ and, ‘Stop conversions.’

The 15 Christians at the church immediately vacated the building and locked it from outside. The mob broke the windows of the church, shattering all window panes and destroying two expensive chandeliers before damaging a cross outside.

Police arrived at the scene, preventing the mob from further harming the church property, and arrested four of the fleeing Hindu extremists. The rest escaped.

The assault followed an attack in Kosmi on February 22 in which a mob of Hindu extremists dragged at least four people from a home where Christians were meeting and beat them with bamboo poles, rods and belts.

Kyrgyzstan has rejected for now a harsh new Decree which would have brought in sweeping controls on religious activity.

But Kanat Murzakhalilov, Deputy Head of the State Agency for Religious Affairs, told Forum 18 News Service that his agency hopes to present a final draft of a controversial new Religion Law to the government by the end of March.

He refused to say if the draft will require 200 adult citizen members before a community can gain legal status, a provision in the latest publicly-available draft which is opposed by the Russian Orthodox, the Catholics, many Protestant Churches, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Baha'is. But he stated that registration will continue to be compulsory.

Boris Shumkov of the Council of Churches Baptists told Forum 18 that such harsh provisions would lead to repression and persecution of our congregations.

More than 200 people have been killed in two days of clashes between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria, the Red Cross said, during the worst unrest in the country for years.

The army sent reinforcements to enforce a 24-hour curfew in the city of Jos, which lies at the flashpoint where Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south meet, after rival gangs set fire to churches and mosques.

I counted 218 dead bodies at Masalaci Jummaa [mosque]. There are many other bodies in the streets, said a Red Cross official. That death toll did not include hospital mortuaries, victims already buried, or those taken to other places of worship. The final count could be much higher, officials said.

About 7,000 people had fled their homes and were sheltering in government buildings and religious centres, the Red Cross said.

The governor of Plateau state, of which Jos is the capital, said in a statement that troops had orders to shoot on sight to enforce the curfew in neighbourhoods hit by the violence. Gunfire and explosions heard in the early hours of Saturday later died down, but many streets remained deserted. Military checkpoints were set up around the city and soldiers helped to clear bodies from the streets.

Violence started on Thursday night as groups of youths burnt tyres on the roads after reports of election rigging.

Update: Death Toll Reaches 400

3rd December 2008. See article from thescotsman.scotsman.com

More  bodies were delivered to the main mosque in the central Nigerian city of Jos yesterday, as the death toll from two days of clashes between Christian and Muslim gangs rose to about 400.

Rival ethnic and religious mobs burned homes, shops, mosques and churches in fighting triggered by a disputed local election in a city at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south. It is the country's worst unrest for years.

Thousands of Muslim protestors on November 23rd attacked a Coptic church in a suburb of Cairo, Egypt, burning part of it, a nearby shop and two cars and leaving five people injured.

Objecting to a newly constructed extension to the Coptic church of St. Mary and Anba Abraam in Ain Shams, the huge crowd of angry protestors gathered outside the church at around 5pm following a consecration service for the addition earlier that day.

Chanting, We will demolish the church, Islam is the solution and No God but Allah, according to Helmy Guirguis, president of the UK Coptic Association, rioters pelted the church with stones and burned part of the structure; priests and worshipers were trapped inside, and five people were injured.

It was a terrifying moment, said lawyer Nabil Gobrayel, who was inside the church at the time. They were shouting ‘holy slogans' like, ‘We will bring the church down,', ‘The priest is dead' and ‘The army of Muhammad is coming.'

Police slow to arrive were not prepared for the scale of the protest. Angry Muslims swarmed to the area from a two-kilometer radius, and although estimates varied, some suggested as many as 8,000 people gathered.

Rioters' stones broke the structure's windows, and a nearby shop and two cars belonging to Christians were set on fire.

Reinforcements for the overwhelmed security forces did not arrive until two hours later and were then engaged in clashes with the mob. Armored vehicles brought in riot police, who used tear gas to disperse the crowd while fire services aided their efforts with water cannons.

A United Copts of Great Britain statement suggested that police were slow to arrest perpetrators in the early stages of the demonstration but did eventually detain 41 people around midnight.

Of the 38 Muslims arrested, 30 were quickly released under the pretext of being minors, according to the United Copts statement. Three arrested Christians, however, remained in prison without charges.

According to Gobrayel, the church will be closed for two months while officials consider its future.

The murderous rioting sparked by Muslim attacks on Christians and their property on Nov. 28-29 left six pastors dead, at least 500 other people killed and 40 churches destroyed, according to church leaders.

More than 25,000 persons have been displaced in the two days of violence, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

What began as outrage over suspected vote fraud in local elections quickly hit the religious fault line that quakes from time to time in this city located between the Islamic north and Christian south, as angry Muslims took aim at Christian sites rather than at political targets. Police and troops reportedly killed about 400 rampaging Muslims in an effort to quell the unrest, and Islamists shot, slashed or stabbed to death most of more than 100 Christians.

A new wave of violence has erupted in Nigeria as Muslims and Christians battled in the northern Bauchi state.

The latest incident saw Muslims attacking Christian places of worship after two mosques were set on fire. The Muslims blamed this on the local Christian population.

Local sources suggest that this latest outbreak of violence, following riots in November, began when members of a Pentecostal church barricaded an approach to a mosque during Friday prayers. But some said the blockage was due to a broken-down truck, which blocked the passage of Muslim worshippers.

Government officials are concerned about the rising tensions after hundreds were killed last November in Jos in similar violence. Tensions in the region have been high for years and were exacerbated after several states in the north of Nigeria adopted Sharia law.

See article from christianpost.com

Sectarian violence in northern Nigeria this past weekend left at least 11 people dead, police and Red Cross officials said.

Violence broke out Saturday when Muslim youths attacked Christians and burned churches in Bauchi state, according to Agence France Presse. In total, six churches and about a dozen houses were torched, Red Cross officials said.

The conflict also left nearly 40 people injured.

Police in Nigeria say they have made 120 arrests following clashes when Muslim youths attacked a Christian procession on Easter Monday.

Sectarian violence erupted in the towns of Gwada and Minna in the state of Niger when Christians were attacked and churches set on fire.

Scores of people were reportedly taken to hospital with injuries.

Police reinforcements have been deployed to the two towns in an attempt to restore order.

International Christian Concern has learned that radical Muslims running a tea stall beat a Christian man to death for using a cup designated for Muslims on May 9.

The young man, Ishtiaq Masih, had ordered tea at a roadside stall in Machharkay village, Punjab, Pakistan, after his bus made a rest stop.

When Ishtiaq went to pay for his tea, the owner noticed that he was wearing a necklace with a cross and grabbed him, calling for his employees to bring anything available to beat him for violating a muslims only sign posted on the stall. Ishtiaq had not noticed the warning sign before ordering his tea.

The owner and 14 of his employees beat Ishtiaq with stones, iron rods and clubs, and stabbed him multiple times with kitchen knives as Ishtiaq pleaded for mercy.

The other bus passengers and other passers-by finally intervened and took Ishtiaq to the Rural Health Center in the village. The doctor who took Ishtiaq's case told ICC that Ishtiaq had died due to excessive internal and external bleeding, a fractured skull, and brain injuries.

ICC's correspondent visited the tea stall and observed that a large red warning sign with a death's head symbol was posted which read, All non-Muslims should introduce their faith prior to ordering tea. This tea stall serves Muslims only. The warning also threatened anyone who violated the rule with dire consequences.

Ishtiaq's family said that they immediately reported the incident to the police and filed a case against stall owner Ali. However, the murderers are still freely operating the tea stall. When ICC asked the Pindi Bhatian Saddar police station about the murder, the police chief said that investigations were underway and they are treating it as a faith-based murder by biased Muslims.

The public is encouraged to call the Pakistani embassy of their country to protest this heinous crime?

A Muslim mob numbering about 600 attacked Christians in a Pakistani village near an India-Pakistan border Tuesday, destroying several houses, looting valuables and injuring many on the usual trumped up blasphemy charge.

Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan (SLMP) fact finding team said, the blasphemy charge was stemmed from a trivial quarrel between a Christian driver and a Muslim motor cycle rider which later led to the intervention of a local Muslim priest, who charged the driver and other Christians of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed, Pakistan Christian Post reported.

The incident happened at Bahmani Wala village in District Kasur, Sardar Masih a tractor driver had asked way to Mohammed Riaz who is blocking the way with his motor-cycle, but the latter became angry and abused Masih as low caste how he dare asked him. A scuffle took place between both of them which, later, became reason of a critical incident.

Riaz contacted Qari Lateef, a local clergyman who is known for his infamous blasphemy cases in Kasur. Qari Lateef urged Muhammad Riaz to plot a blasphemy accusation against Sardar Masih and other Christians.

SLMP fact finding team found that the Muslic cleric Qari Lateef announced through loudspeaker accusing Christians of the village of committing blasphemy. He announced Christians have made derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad therefore they are liable to death.

Riaz and others called hundred of Muslims from surrounding villages as well. The angry mob of Muslims, shouting on Christians attacked their houses and started destroying everything. They set many houses of Christians on fire, looted their money and valuables, tortured Christian men and women of the village and fled away from the spot.

Update: Compensation

8th July 2009. See article from bosnewslife.com

Pakistan's Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti has said that he has successfully reconciled' Muslims and Christians in a tense village in Punjab province where over a dozen people were injured when angry mobs torched at least 100 Christian homes and churches this week.

Islam and Christianity teach to co-exist with peace and harmony, added the minister, an outspoken Christian, who held talks with community leaders. He said each affected Christian family would receive 100,000 Pakistani Rupees ($1,260) in compensation.

At least nine women and four children were injured when acid were thrown at them, witnesses said. They were later rescued by rights activists and received medical treatment, officials told Worthy News.

Bomb attacks on six Baghdad-area Churches within 24 hours have killed at least four and wounded 32 people.

The deadliest attack came on Sunday evening at around 7pm near a church on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad killed three Christians and one Muslim, said a police officer.

According to CNN, the first bombing took place Saturday night at St. Joseph's church in western Baghdad. Two bombs placed inside the church exploded at about 10 p.m. No one was in the church at the time of the attack.

It was followed by three bombs explosion on Sunday afternoon outside two churches in central Baghdad's al-Karrada district and one al-Ghadeer in eastern Baghdad, wounding eight civilians, the official said. And in southern Baghdad's Dora district, a bomb outside a church wounded three other civilians.

Most of the churches were damaged in the bombings, according to video footage posted on CNN Web site.

Update: 7th Church Bombed

15th July 2009. See article from christiantoday.com

A Chaldean Christian church in Iraq was bombed Monday, injuring three children in the latest violent act against a Christian house of worship, Iraqi officials said.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Monday's bombing, the seventh since Saturday; occurred when a car bomb exploded and damaged the church in Mosul, CNN reported.

In a continuation of the ongoing Egyptian wave of arson attacks on Coptic places of worship, the Church of St. Abaskharion Kellini, in the village of Ezbet Bassilious, Beni Mazar, was burnt down at noon on July 11 by Muslim village inhabitants. No one was injured.

A source in Bani Mazar Diocese told Free Copts advocacy the fire was instigated and directed as usual by State Security, aiming to prevent prayers in new churches throughout both the Upper Egyptian provinces of Minya and of Beni Suef.

The Church was officially inaugurated on July 3 by the Bishop of Beni Mazar and was licensed for prayer. It was closed on that same day by State Security for security reasons and to avert a sectarian crisis, and was placed under continuous guard.

Eyewitnesses named three Muslim village inhabitants Ahmed Abdelghani, Ahmed El-Qatawy and Eid Sayed Ahmad of torching the Church after spraying it with kerosene, according to Mikhael Fares of Copts United advocacy.

The Fire brigade arrived two hours late, after the Church roof had completely collapsed, eyewitnesses said. Only the holy alter was untouched by the fire.

Copts United reported that when some Christian villagers of Ezbet Bassilious went to the police station to file a report on the incident, and named the suspects, they were detained and threatened to change their statements.

Bauchi, a city in Nigeria was awash with bloodbath  as scores of religious fundamentalists were killed after a failed attack on a police station.

Official estimates put the death toll at 32, but the figure is not less than 150, according to correspondents who said they counted the bodies.

A group called “Boko Haram” (“education is sin”), which has been campaigning for the imposition of Sharia'h on the 36 states of the Nigerian federation, was said to have sparked off the crisis when its members launched an attack on the station.

Reuters news agency quoted a member of the group, who was wounded during the initial attack on the station, as saying the group wanted to clean the (Nigerian) system which is polluted by western education and uphold Sharia'h all over the country.

The police has (have) been arresting our leaders; that is why we decided to retaliate, said the man, who gave his name only as Abdullah, according to the news agency.

Meanwhile, the state Governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, has described the fundamentalists as militants, urging Nigerians to see it as a national issue. Their plan is to attack everybody, he said, while announcing a curfew from 9pm to 6am: Governors should brace up and clean their states of this rubbish.

Boko Haram were said to be reacting to the refusal of the Bauchi State government to allow a free atmosphere to publicly practise their religion as well as win more souls to the sect.

The sect members, in their hundreds, trooped to the Dutsen Tanshi Police Station in the early hours of the day and attacked it, chasing away the few policemen on duty and forcing themselves into the station before destroying anything they could lay their hands on.

After a distress call by the policemen to the Command headquarters, a reinforcement of armed policemen, including men from the mobile unit, was drafted to the area to ward off the fundamentalists during which some of them were killed and several others injured.

Update: 150 Die as Violence Spreads

30th July 2009. See article from thisdayonline.com

The bloody clash between the police and members of an Islamic fundamentalist group known as Boko Haram (“education is sin”), which left many dead in the early hours of Sunday in Bauchi, has spread to other states in the North.

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who was in Ilorin, Kwara State, yesterday to inaugurate the multi-billion naira Ganmo power sub-station completed by the Governor Bukola Saraki administration, has directed all the national security outfits to combine forces to immediately contain further spread of the religious crisis.

Over 150 people have been left dead, while indigenes of the area are said to be fleeing their homes. By yesterday, the attack by the group had spread to Borno, Yobe, Gombe and Kano States.

Update: 300 Die as Sect Leader is Shot

1st August 2009. Based on article from theglobeandmail.com

Nigerian authorities have collected hundreds of bodies from the streets of the northern city of Maiduguri following days of clashes with members of a radical Islamic sect.

State government and Health Ministry officials piled the corpses, some of them swollen after lying in the streets for days, onto open trucks as police and soldiers patrolled.

As of yesterday, we had more than 200 dead bodies, Aliyu Maikano, northeastern zone disaster management officer for the Nigerian Red Cross, said Friday, adding that bodies were still being collected.

The toll in Maiduguri brings to at least 300 the total number of people killed in violence in several northern Nigerian states since Sunday.

The authorities are hoping the killing of sect leader Mohammed Yusuf, whose Boko Haram movement wants a wider adoption of Islamic sharia law across Africa's most populous nation, will bring an end to the uprising by his followers.

MYusuf was shot dead while in police detention late on Thursday. Officials have said he died in a shootout while trying to escape, but rights groups have condemned what appeared to have been an execution-style killing.

Reports began trickling out of Bangladesh this spring about an anti-Hindu violence in the heart of its capital carried out in three stages: March 30, April 17, and April 29. A community of approximately 400 Hindus was reportedly going about its business when hundreds of Muslims suddenly descended on them and demanded they quit the homes where they and their families had lived for the past 150 years. Witnesses also report that police watched passively while attackers beat residents and destroyed a Hindu temple.

And although every Hindu, as well as the international community, should have reacted with horror and outrage, neither did.

The Bangladeshi Government denied that any such thing happened, and local police captain Tofazzal Hossain declared, No demolition of temple occurred. There was no temple there, only a few idols. Yet, sources for the charge — Global Human Rights Defence at The Hague and the Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council, as well as several local human rights groups and newspapers — are highly credible, prompting our two-month investigation that confirms something terrible did occur, even if not exactly as described by initial reports.

For while not all 400 Hindus were made homeless, a significant number were, which is tragic enough, especially since many remain so months later. Nor has the Bangladeshi Government even bothered to deny that Hindus were beaten, some religious desecration occurred, or that police were present during the attacks. We also confirmed that the area attacked was located directly behind the Sutrapur Police Station in Dhaka and the Shiv Mandir only about 18 m from it; yet, the police did nothing to stop its destruction.

This is not about one terrible event, but about a system of legalised ethnic cleansing that has proceeded non-stop for decades and which places every one of Bangladesh's 13,000,000-15,000,000 Hindus at risk. For despite Government protestations to the contrary, normal legal protections are suspended for Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh who are often subject to arbitrary actions by the Muslim majority.

The Nigerian police have said that they had rescued 230 women and children kidnapped by members of Boko Haram from several northern states and taken to Maiduguri.

Already, 200 or so members of the group and other victims of terror they unleashed in Maiduguri are to be given mass burial, according to the State police commissioner, Christopher Dega.

One of the rescued people, Maimunatu Shuraim, 15, told AFP that the sect members herded them into waiting buses telling them they would learn pure Islamic theology in Maiduguri.

Although, commercial activities have resumed after five days of fierce fighting between police/soldiers and the sect, security agents are on a house to house search for fleeing members of Boko Haram. Thirty-eight suspected members were arrested in Abuja weekend while on their way to Lagos.

At least 300 have been killed in parts of the North during almost a week of rioting by followers of Boko Haram, a militant sect which wants a wider adoption of sharia (Islamic law). The authorities are hoping the killing of sect leader Mohammed Yusuf, 39, who was shot dead while in police detention in Maiduguri Thursday, will bring an end to violence.

I urge everyone to resume their normal lives now that the unfortunate Boko Haram uprising has been crushed, said Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State: The security agencies shall continue the house to house searches for members of the sect in order to bring them to justice and I urge you all to cooperate with them.

Thousands of Muslims raided a Christian village in the Punjab province of Pakistan Thursday, destroying around 60 houses and two churches, according local sources.

The village of Korian was attacked Thursday night after pages containing Islamic inscriptions were found in front of a Christian home on July 26 following a wedding.

Though the family accused of desecrating the Qur'an said they had no idea who was responsible and nevertheless apologized for the offense, local Muslims filed charges against the family according to the country's blasphemy laws and went on to attack the village, forcing the some 100 Christian families who live there to flee.

They have left nothing. My horse, my only source of income, has also been taken, Shubaan Masih, a local Christian, told UCA News.

According to media reports, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has also strongly condemned the incident and expressed his sorrow over the destruction of homes and loss of livestock. Reports said that Sharif has directed authorities to secure the area and control the situation.

Update: More Murdered Christians

3rd August 2009. From Minority Concern of Pakistn

On Aug. 1, around three thousand violent Muslim demonstrators attacked a Christian colony in Gojra city in Punjab province and they burned 8 Christians - a 7 years old child, 4 women and 2 men - alive and injured 20 others. They put on fire the whole Christian locality in which 40 houses and 2 local churches were totally burnt.

The Muslim demonstrators were protesting against alleged desecration of Quran by some Christians in a nearby village Koriyan, about 4 kilometers from Gojra, 2 days ago.

On the call of some religious organizations, Muslim community observed a complete strike in the city and started demonstration at 8.30 in the morning. They were demanding death sentence of Talib Masih who is charged of false blasphemy in village Koriyan. For several hours, they blocked the main roads and also the railway track.

Update: Religious Riots

5th August 2009. See article from foxnews.com, thanks to Alan

A Pakistani human rights commission said yesterday that last week's riots in which eight Christians were burnt alive were not spontaneous but planned by attackers, some of whom had links with al-Qaeda. The commission said announcements made from mosques the day before called upon Muslims to "make mincemeat of the Christians".

Paramilitary troops now patrol the streets of a town in eastern Pakistan after Muslim radicals burned to death eight members of a Christian family, raising fears of violence spreading to other areas.

Hundreds of armed supporters of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an outlawed Islamic militant group, burned dozens of Christian homes in Gojra over the weekend after allegations that a copy of the Koran had been defiled.

The mob opened fire indiscriminately, threw gas bombs and looted houses as thousands of frightened Christians ran for safety. They were shouting anti-Christian slogans and attacked our houses, Rafiq Masih, a resident of the predominantly Christian colony, said. Residents said that police stood aside while the mob went on the rampage. We kept begging for protection, but police did not take action, Masih said.

Police and local officials said that at least eight people, including four women and a child, were killed in the fires. Two others died of gunshot wounds. Residents said that the casualties were much higher; one claimed that the number of dead could be in the dozens as many bodies were still buried under the rubble. Shahbaz Bhatti, the Minister for Minorities, said that 40 Christian homes were torched in rioting. He said there was no truth to allegations that a Koran had been defiled, and accused the police of ignoring his appeal to provide protection to Christians.

Update: 80 Arrests

12th August 2009. See article from catholicculture.org

Pakistani police have arrested 80 Muslims following the brutal August 1 attack that left ten Christians dead in the northeastern Pakistani city of Gojra. Speaking at the victims' memorial Mass, Father Shafique Hadayat, the local parish priest, commended the government for its response.

Update: Murder with Impunity

6th August 2010. From Minority Concern of Pakistn

One year on and sadly, not even a single attacker has been punished.

Almas Hameed, who lost eight members of his family, decided to leave Pakistan for his safety because of the pressure from the extremists to withdraw his compliant. The police was failed to arrest the offenders because of political pressure.

The Christian community alleges that those who were arrested earlier were released by the police though they were clearly identifiable in the video footage of the incident. Qari Noor Muhammad, one of the men nominated in the FIR, was the one who motivated Muslims in the area through the mosque's loudspeakers to attack Christians, is still at large.

The Muslim and Christian communities, with the assistance of the local administration, trying to promote peace and harmony in the area as well as attempts by extremist elements to inflame emotions but the Christians still feel threatened. Professor Anjum James Paul, Christian social worker, says that the Christians in both of the places of Korian and Gojra are still in the state of fear. At presently the situation is calm but pressure is still there, says Church of Pakistan Bishop John Samuel of Gojra. He adds that unfortunately the Muslim community thinks we are western agents and wants us to leave the locality. We are Pakistanis and want to live here. We want a peaceful society, he added.

At the urging of local Muslim leaders, police in western Bangladesh have tortured a pastor and two other Christians for legally proclaiming Christ.

Habibur Rahman pastor of Boalia Spiritual Church said he was about to meet with 11 others for a monthly meeting on evangelism June 8 when local police stormed in and seized him and two other chrsitians.

The first question the police commander asked him, Rahman said, was, Why did you become Christian? Using a lot of filthy words, he charged me that I was teaching the Bible and converting people to Christianity in this area, the pastor told Compass. Police told us, ‘We will teach you in the camp how to forget your Christ,' while dragging us to the vehicle.

Police blindfolded them after reaching the camp and took them to three separate rooms.

I heard blood-curdling scream from other rooms, Rahman said. I was sitting on the floor blindfolded. I could not understand what was happening around me. Later several police came to me and one of them kicked me on the back of my head, and my head ricocheted off the wall. They also kicked my waist.

While beating us, police told us there will be no Christian in this area, the pastor said. Police hurt our hands, lips, thighs and faces with burning cigarettes. They beat me in the joints of my limbs with a wooden club. They beat us for one hour, and I became senseless at some point.

Police did not release the three Christians until 9:30 that night.

The next day, June 10, thousands of Muslim villagers demonstrated in front of a local government office called the Zamzami Union Council chanting, We want a Christian-free society, and We will not allow any Christians in Cuadanga.

The frenzied mob called for Rahman to appear at the local government office, and a sub-district administrative chief called in 10 Christians and 10 Muslims including imams to try to resolve the matter. In that meeting, the administrative official told everyone to practice their religion freely without disturbing others.

Jotish Biswas, executive director of Way of Life Trust, said the marks of torture were unmistakable: There were streaks of blood on their legs, hands and faces, said Biswas, who interceded with police on behalf of the arrested Christians: I have seen marks of cigarette burns on their bodies. They were beaten so severely that they could not walk properly.

Nigerian police have raided an isolated Muslim community in the western state of Niger, taking more than 600 people into custody.

A team of 1,000 officers took part in the Saturday morning raid on the Darul Islam community.

Police say no weapons were found and there was no resistance to the arrests.

The raid comes in the aftermath of the violent uprising of the Boko Haram Islamist group last month in which hundreds of people died.

A BBC correspondent says the authorities may be taking this opportunity to disperse the Darul Islam (or House of Islam) community.

The settlement was established in the early 1990s to live according to strict Islamic principles, away from what they see as western decadence. After the recent bloodshed involving Boko Haram in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, Darul Islam came under official scrutiny.

Bodies were being pulled from wells and cesspits in a Nigerian village riven by four days of rioting between Christians and Muslims. As many as 400 people may have died in and around the town of Jos last week before Nigerian authorities deployed the military to contain violence.

Human Rights Watch said it believed Muslims in Jos and neighbouring villages had been targeted for a deliberate massacre.

Muhammad Tanko Shittu, a senior mosque official organising mass burials in Jos, said more than 200 bodies had been found in a nearby village called Kuru Karama: So many bodies were dumped into wells and were littered around, others were being evacuated by the federal authorities, he said.

Human Rights Watch said groups of armed men attacked the mostly Muslim population of Kuru Karama, burning some alive and killing others as they tried to flee. It urged Jonathan to order an investigation of credible reports of a massacre of at least 150 Muslim residents.

The Red Cross has estimated 17,000 people were displaced and took shelter in colleges, hospitals and schools.

Dozens of bodies lined the dusty streets of three Christian villages in northern Nigeria yesterday. Other victims of Sunday morning's Muslim rampage were jammed into a local morgue, the limbs of slaughtered children tangled in a grotesque mess.

Officials estimate that 500 people were massacred in night-time raids by Muslim gangs near Jos, the city that bestrides Nigeria's Christian-Muslim fault line.

Witnesses said gangs waited at main entry points to the villages while others went from house to house, setting the homes on fire. Those who fled were killed at the exit points. Others were slaughtered after being caught in animal traps and nets as they ran in the dark.

Ben Kwashi, Anglican Archbishop of Jos, said he visited one of three villages engulfed by the violence. I could see kids from age zero to teenagers, all butchered from the back, macheted in their necks, their heads. Deep cuts in the mouths of babies. The stench. People wailing and crying, he said.

Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner, ordered troops into the riot-affected area to confront and defeat these roving bands of killers, he said in a statement. Last night he sacked Sarki Mukhtar, the national security adviser, a powerful figure in the inner circle of the ailing President, Umaru Yar'Adua.

Update: 162 to be Charged

26th March 2010. See article from telegraph.co.uk

Nigerian police plan to charge 162 people for their role in sectarian clashes that killed hundreds in Plateau state earlier this month.

Some of those arrested could be sentenced to death following the deaths of over 200 people during riots around the central city of Jos.

Forty-one of the suspects are to be charged with terrorism and culpable homicide, which are punishable by death, police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said.

The remaining detainees would be charged with unlawful possession of firearms, rioting and mischief by fire for the burning of buildings during the attacks.

Police say Christians and Muslims have clashed in eastern Nigeria, leaving eight people dead and 40 seriously wounded.

They say six mosques and one church were also torched.

Police say the fight involved Muslim and Christian youths in Wukari, a town in Taraba state and was over the building of a mosque at the local police headquarters.

Taraba state police commissioner Aliyu Musa says a Christian mob opposed to the construction of the mosque set fire to it.

He says the group of Muslims responded by attacking a nearby church, leading to the eruption of violence between the two sides.

Clashes broke out between armed Christian and Muslim groups near the central Nigerian city of Jos after Christmas Eve bombings in the region killed more than 30 people and left 74 critically injured.

Witnesses said buildings were set ablaze and people forced to run for cover as the police and military struggled to disperse crowds.

Houses are on fire all over the place and I can see injured people covered in blood being dragged by friends and family towards the hospital, a witness said.

Update: 80 killed

30th December 2010. See article from christiantoday.com

The death toll for the Christmas Eve bombings in central Nigeria and the Christian-Muslim clash that ensued has risen to at least 80 people.

The latest death toll includes those killed in the connected conflict between Muslim and Christian youths on Sunday in central Nigeria. Another 100 people were wounded and are in the hospital.

On Christmas Eve, two bombs exploded near a busy market where people were Christmas shopping in Jos, the capital of Plateau state. Another blast occurred in a predominantly Christian neighbourhood and a fourth bomb exploded near a road leading to the main mosque in Jos.

The radical Muslim group Boko Haram, which has a history of violence against Christians, has claimed responsibility for the bombings in Jos and the church attacks in the northern town of Maiduguri.