Top photo caption: Peter Bhatti speaks during the launch of Aid to the Church in Need’s report, “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report into Christians Oppressed for their Faith 2024-2026,” at Portcullis House in London Oct. 27, 2026. Bhatti, whose brother Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated in Pakistan in 2011, called for greater international action to protect religious minorities. OSV News photo/Simon Caldwell
By Simon Caldwell, OSV News
LONDON OSV News – The brother of a Pakistani government minister murdered because of his Catholic faith has called upon Western leaders to increase international pressure on Islamabad to protect religious minorities.
Peter Bhatti, an elder brother of Shahbaz Bhatti, spoke to OSV News during the launch in London of the 10th edition of “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report into Christians oppressed for their Faith 2024-2026,” produced by the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need.
Speaking after an Oct. 27 reception in Portcullis House, part of the parliamentary estate, Bhatti said: “Neither the U.K. nor any other Western government is doing enough for the persecuted Christians of Pakistan.
“No country has done enough to protect religious minorities, especially the Christians,” he said. “The West needs to promote interfaith harmony in Pakistan so everyone can live together. Unless the West talks seriously with the Pakistani government that won’t happen.”
Bhatti wrote the foreword to the report because 2026 is the 15th anniversary of the assassination of his brother, Shahbaz, the federal minister for minorities affairs.
Shahbaz was shot in an ambush outside his mother’s home because he sought the reform of the country’s notorious blasphemy laws and the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who had been falsely accused and sentenced to death.
Bibi was later given a reprieve and is now living in exile in Canada, and Shahbaz has been hailed as a martyr, with the Diocese of Rawalpindi-Islamabad opening his cause for canonization in 2016.
At the launch of the report, Bhatti said the perilous situation of religious minorities in Pakistan has not improved.
“Many human rights and religious freedom advocates have fallen silent out of fear that extremists might target them,” he said.
“As a result, religious minorities have continued to face persecution, including the misuse of blasphemy laws, abductions, forced conversion and forced marriages. The situation of religious minorities continues to go from bad to worse,” Bhatti warned.
“We urgently need to raise awareness of the reality of persecution of Christians and other religious minorities around the world today,” he said.
He also called on the U.K. to work with the United States, the EU, Canada and other nations to develop a common strategy to combat the oppression of faith minorities.
Report editor John Newton told the meeting that “the lack of religious literacy in the West means anti-Christian animus is often downplayed or even omitted in favor of other factors.”
“I hope this report will inspire us to speak out for those who cannot, to stand with those who endure persecution,” he said.
The 42-page report examines the persecution of Christians in 18 countries over the past two years.
For Africa, it includes Egypt, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mozambique, Sudan and Eritrea; in the Middle East, it includes Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Pakistan and India are included for South Asia, and the Far East is represented by North Korea, China, Vietnam and Myanmar. Nicaragua is the only country from the Americas and no countries from Europe are included.
Not a single country showed improvements for persecuted Christians, with the report revealing that in 10 countries persecution worsened while eight remained the same.
Pakistan was among the nations to show increased persecution. A case study reported that in “in April 2026, UN experts expressed ‘serious concern’ about the abduction, forced conversion and marriage of women and girls from Christian and other minority faith communities.”
It said: “In 2025 it was estimated that there might possibly be up to 2,000 kidnapping cases every year, with those abducted facing physical and sexual abuse.”
According to the report, Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most dangerous places to be a Christian because of “rampant” Islamic terrorist violence which, according to the report, has displaced 3.5 million people in Nigeria alone.
The report notes that in China, the Online Code of Conduct for Religious Personnel, introduced in 2025, made it illegal to disseminate religious content on the internet without the permission of the Communist authorities.
“It banned live-streaming liturgies, prayer meetings, and religious instruction for children and online preaching on unregistered websites,” it said in a China case study. “Only state-registered denominations are allowed websites. All online activity must demonstrate ‘support for the leadership of the Communist Party of China.'”
The report described how Church leaders in Syria fear an existential threat because of the fall in the Christian population by more than 80% since 2011, and says in Iran the arrests of Christians have doubled.
In an Oct. 27 press release, John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need said: “Persecution has become a huge, yet often hidden, factor driving entire communities from their homes, changing the religious demography of entire regions, especially in Africa. What will it take for the world to act?”
Simon Caldwell writes for OSV News from London.
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