"We Christians in Pakistan have hope for a better future."Hope in the face of growing violations of religious freedom around the worldThe Catholic Church in Pakistan could have the first Pakistani saint in its history. The presence of Christianity in Pakistan, a Muslim confessional state, is estimated at less than 2%.
Christian denominations are frequent targets of attacks in this country, which is plagued by the scourge of terrorism at the hands of Islamic groups of various factions. To be a Christian is, in fact, to be considered a "second-class citizen" in Pakistan.
Akash Bashir prevented, in 2015, a suicide bomber from entering a St. John's Church in Youhanabad, belonging to the Diocese of Lahore.
Akash Bashir, born on June 22, 1994 in Risalpur, in the Pakistani province of Nowshera Khyber Pakhtun Khwa. Bashir was a student at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Lahore and was a member of the youth of the parish community of St. John's Church.
On March 15, 2015, while keeping watch at the church gate, when he observed a man trying to enter the temple with an explosive belt on his body. Akash embraced the man holding him at the entrance gate, derailing the terrorist's plan to make a massacre inside the church.
The attacker - a member of Tehreek-e-Taliban Jamaatul Ahraar, a Taliban splinter group - blew himself up and young Akash Bashir died with him. His last words from Akash were, "I will die, but I will not let you in."
Along with him, 15 other people were killed and more than 70 injured. At the same time, terrorists attacked a nearby Protestant church.
"Bashir offered his life as a sacrifice to save the life of the community," Francis Gulzar, vicar general of the archdiocese of Lahore, said in a statement on the occasion.
The Diocese of Lahore initiated Akash Bashir's cause for beatification in 2016 on the first anniversary of the terrorist attack.
On January 31, as reported by Fides, the Archbishop of Lahore, Sebastian Shaw, announced that the Vatican had given the go-ahead for the young man to be declared a Servant of God. This confirms the first step in the cause of who could be the first saint of the Islamic Republic.
