Daily Threat of Assassination: Life in the Balance

To be a Christian leader can mean death, pure and simply, whether 2000 years ago or in 2018. Yes, death! This is what a key AFA leader in Nepal is presently faced with – ‘pay $150,000 or die’. We are authorized to publish this but it is better not to say more than this article says and not to name names.

For weeks and weeks the phone went, often daily, You are an American agent. You are the one who is spreading Christianity all over Nepal. Pay up or you are dead! And so on. Indeed, if anyone wants to serve Christ he needs to take up his cross and be willing to die.

It started more than a year and a half ago – these disturbing phone calls but then it subsided again but then recently these assassination threats became a full blown crisis. Why him? Why our man?

The answer is probably simple: he is prominent in Nepal and well known. He has been a spokesperson for Christianity in the public realm, in politics, in civil society all over the country. He means business with his faith. He is into converting people. He defends Christians in jail. So he is a good and easy target.

Killer on Most Wanted List killed

he situation developed into high drama around 19 February 2018. A man by the name of Manoj Pun Magar called. The police had him on the country’s most wanted list. He had killed three people already. He is a fanatic – a blood-stained killer. He also had rung many times before. We can only compare him with Al-Qaida and ISIS agents but on the Hindu side, not with misled suicide bombers.

At 2:30am in the early morning hours of 20 February 2018 he and his executor (marksman) were killed in a shoot-out with police. It went through all the papers and other media in Nepal. Was this relief at last?

Not at all! To the contrary: On 22 February the phone started to ring again and someone identified himself as Binod Pun Magar, I am Manoj’s brother. We have hundreds waiting to avenge my brother’s death. We are searching for you.

Of course they are cold blooded terrorists for whom life means nothing. They asked for more than $US100,000 to save his life but to pay a ransom was never considered. The worst part is not just the daily danger of death to our friend only but to his whole family.

And so the pain continues – the fear, the unknown, the sleepless nights, also the inner turmoil, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The request to send prayers to heaven for the whole family of this sufferer is an understatement.

And then the question: what has God in mind? What will happen tomorrow? We are not saying that this man will be killed – he has good police protection – but he definitely may be killed. Sink into silence for just a few minutes!

I will testify that this man has been in a state of torture for weeks and at one stage I was worried about him losing his mind. It’s the thought of your family being killed that is worse than the thought of your own dying.