Prisoner of faith: Imran Ghafur

On July 1, 2009, Pakistani police arrested Imran Ghafur in Punjab province after Muslims accused him of burning pages of the Qur’an. While cleaning his brother’s retail shop, Imran removed the trash he had collected, intending to burn some of it. While burning the trash, pages of an Islamic book flew into the fire and burned. Imran’s neighbour, Haji Liaqat, saw the burned pages of the Islamic book and alerted other Muslims in the area.

Imran and his father were severely beaten before police arrested Imran. Following the arrest, news of the incident spread throughout the city, and angry Muslims threw stones at the police station where Imran was being held. “Give the death sentence to him who disgraces the Holy Qur’an, and hang him who disgraces the Holy Qur’an,” the Muslims said.

On January 11, 2010, Imran was sentenced to life in prison and fined 100,000 rupees.

In March 2012, Imran’s family shared with VOM that Imran spends time praying and singing spiritual songs in the prison at midnight. Sometimes Muslim prisoners join him and ask him to pray for them. Imran also spends time reading the Bible. His family shared that he is anxious to be released so that he can "do missionary work for Jesus."

Please encourage Imran today by writing him a letter. Remind him that he is known by God and by his brothers and sisters in Christ. Tell him you are praying for him and his family.

Kindly mail your letters to:

Imran Ghafur
Central Jail of Faisalabad
Faisalabad
Pakistan

Please note: When writing a letter, never mention the name of the source of your information or the name of any organization such as Voice of the Martyrs or Prisoner Alert. It is not dangerous for a prisoner to receive letters from individuals, but if an organization is mentioned they may be accused of links with “foreign organizations” and receive harsher sentences. Also, please do not state anything negative about their government. For more information on letter writing, click here. To create a letter using phrases in Imran’s own language, please visit www.PrisonerAlert.com.