POLICE are to be investigated for corruption for the arrest of 42 Christians at a church in Faisalabad, Pakistan, after the intervention of the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA).

The BPCA, which funded a lawyer to defend the group, which included women and children from the Christian Life Ministries Church, said that the charges against all 42 had been dropped, and the police who arrested them were now under investigation for corruption.

The Christians were arrested, the BPCA said, after they intervened to assist two men who were being beaten by police outside their church.

The church’s pastor, the Revd Chaughtai Kamal, was tortured while in prison, as were other men in the group, the BPCA says. The police argued that they believed illegal alcohol was being brewed in the church, but this claim was dismissed by the Lahore High Court, which has now ordered an investigation into the conduct of the police.

The chairman of the BPCA, Wilson Chowdhry, said: “It is rare for Christians to get justice in a country that views them as pariahs.”