A Pakistan insurance company has fired one of its agents, a 30-year-old Christian who received death threats from Muslims after acting as a witness of a marriage between a Christian man and a Muslim woman.  When Islamic clerics found out that he worked for Eastern Federation Union, they rounded on the company.

[T]he clerics threatened the EFU executives saying that if the company did not punish Zahid, then they could not be held responsible for any attacks that might be carried out against the company and its staff.

On May 16, 2008, the company immediately called a staff meeting to discuss the actions that they could take against Zahid. The EFU executives included Zahid on the meeting, but ordered him to sit apart and be silent. The company decided quickly to fire Zahid and told him not to come in to work the following day.

The day after Zahid was fired, three men stopped him in the market and forced him to let them take his picture. Knowing that the men would use his picture to advertise his "un-Islamic activity," Zahid fled from his home and is now in hiding.

After Mr Zahid had escaped, a local cleric issued a fatwa, calling for him to be murdered on sight.  He now fears that he will have to live the rest of his life in hiding.

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