Pakistani Christians keep Easter on the down-low

As an American, it is difficult to imagine needing to be a bit discrete about Easter celebrations. But that’s the case in a Pakistani town where a Muslim mob killed nine Christians and torched dozens of their houses in a 2009 pogrom.

Reuters reports:

A few days before Easter, which Christians believe marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ three days after his crucifixion, bare-foot children played cricket in the town’s dusty alleys while some men chatted on a bench under a tree. “If we celebrate it with a fanfare, we fear somebody might get annoyed and attack us,” said Khalid Anjum, 45, the owner of a small snooker hall.

The only sign of the approach of Easter was a few young men rehearsing hymns in St. Mary’s Catholic Church. “Fear is there but we cannot give up our religion,” said Wilson Rafiq, the leader of the group of singers, who plays a traditional drum set known as a tabla.

Read the rest here.