CFI recently received this urgent report from our program Director in Bangladesh regarding one of the pastors we support:
Pastor Luke Sarker has survived an attempt on his life by three men who came to his home pretending to want to learn about Christianity.
Luke Sarkar, a 50-year-old Pastor of the Faith Bible Church in the northwestern district of Pabna, said that about two weeks ago he had received a call from two Muslims, who told him that they would like to learn about the Gospel and would like to visit him. The men said they wanted to listen to his sermons and told him that they would like to visit him to learn about the Christian faith. They told him over the cell phone, “We want to hear the Gospel from you.”
On the morning of Monday, October 12, three men arrived at his home. Every morning there is a prayer meeting lead by Pastor. The men joined into the devotion. As they were preparing to leave, the three men started looking around the room. They looked at the Gospel and other books, and suddenly pulled out a knife and tried to cut Pastor Sarker’s throat.
“I bit a hand of one of them and screamed for help. They fled on foot abandoning the motorcycle when my wife and neighbors rushed to the scene,” said the Pastor. He added, “Those two who called me by phone two weeks ago, along with another youth came to my home, riding a motorbike, unannounced on Monday morning.”
The pastor was treated in the local hospital and returned home safely.
This pastor in Bangladesh has survived an attempt on his life by three suspected Islamists who attacked him in his house after pretending to want to learn about Christianity. Just days before, two foreigners were killed by armed men in attacks claimed by the ISIS terror group.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for two seperate attacks, one on a 66-year-old Japanese agricultural worker Hoshi Kunio, and the other on 50-year-old an Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella. The IS claim has been refuted by Bangladesh’s government, which blamed the opposition for trying to destabilize the country.