Two unidentified men attempted to set fire to a church building in Pakistan on Saturday night (April 5), but timely intervention by the pastor thwarted the attack, sources said.
Pastor Tanveer Boota of the Bethaniya Pentecostal Church in Gulshan Basti, in the Musharraf Colony area of Phoolnagar, Kasur District, Punjab Province, said he was sleeping in his residential quarters on the church premises when he heard noise from the church hall at about midnight.
Seeing light in the church hall, he opened the door to it.
“I saw two men who had covered their faces, and one of them was setting fire to a curtain on the window,” Pastor Boota told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “I shouted at them and ran to stop them, but they escaped from the main entrance.”
His younger brother, Usman Boota, woke up upon hearing the commotion, rushed to the site and doused the fire engulfing the curtain while the pastor called police.
“Soon after a police team headed by senior officers reached there, and during investigation recovered a bottle containing kerosene and a stick with a cloth tied to its end that was used to start the fire,” Pastor Boota said.
Boota has received no threats to him or his church, and there has never been any religious tension in the area, where there are four other Pentecostal churches and one Catholic church, he said.
“There are about 500 Christian families living in our area, and we have never faced any hostility from our Muslim neighbors,” he said. “I’m still at a loss to understand why would anyone want to burn our small church.”
The Bethaniya church of 16 families began just two years ago, he said.
Asked why he stated in the First Information Report (FIR) that he suspected the incident could have been a burglary attempt, Pastor Boota said police had added that sentence in the FIR without his consent.
“In fact, it was the police which scattered the books and papers on the carpet to give an impression that the incident was a failed burglary attempt,” he said.
In meetings with the district police chief and other officers, they assured him of a thorough investigation, he said. They told him they were waiting for fingerprint analysis to help trace the suspects.
The 40-year-old pastor began his pastoral service eight years ago and built the church on his own property.
“We are extremely grateful to God that He has saved our church and residence from the fire,” Pastor Boota said. “We trust the authorities will ensure that whoever is behind this criminal act will be brought to justice so that no other miscreant can try to disturb the religious harmony in our area.”
In November 2023, a Presbyterian church building in Lahore, provincial capital of Punjab Province, was burned in a suspected arson attack. The blaze destroyed the church altar, a cupboard containing Bibles and other Christian books, two air conditioning units and furniture, among other items.
A religious motive for the arson was initially suspected, but a police investigation found the fire was started by a senior member of the congregation, also the treasurer of the session, who sought grab the pastor’s position.
The suspect previously sent a fake threat letter in the name of an Islamist group to scare the pastor, but when he failed to see the desired result, he decided to burn the church building and blame the alleged Islamist outfit to show that the threat to the pastor’s life was real.
Pakistan, whose population is more than 96 percent Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.
