During the epidemic in a mosque in Lahore, Pakistan broadcast over its loudspeaker that it would be distributing govern­ment food aid in response to COVID-19. Rachel Bibi, a Christian in Lahore felt that her family would be res­cued from their plight. She went to the mosque and waited in line, and when it was her turn, she presented her national ID card as others had done before her.

However, instead of receiving aid, Rachel was told that she could not receive any food because her ID identi­fied her as a Christian.

“Christians often face religious hatred and discrimination,” Rachel told ICC days later. “However, we never thought we would see this discrimination at this critical time of COVID-19.”

Most of Pakistan’s Christian commu­nity is desperately poor, living at the bot­tom rung of society. They earn a living through daily labor jobs. The national lockdown cut them off from the income that kept them just above starvation.

For Pakistan’s Christian community, the COVID-19 pandemic presented a new low in persecution and discrimi­nation. In the Sandha Kalan village, more than 100 Christian families were excluded from the distribution of food aid. The aid, collected by a village man­agement committee and mostly made up of food staples, was reportedly designed to be distributed among all the deserving families of the village. However, when the aid was distributed, the local mosque cleric did not allow a single Christian family to receive aid.

Source:  persecution.org

Pakistan: food aid denied for over 100 Christian families amid coronavirus