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“We live under fear, the whole country is under tension,” said Younis Masih, a 61-year-old retired soldier and member of the slum’s Presbyterian Church told The Sunday Telegraph last week. “People are afraid and anything can happen in this situation.”

There's no political backing here, no Christian leaders here. They feel isolated and weak and prefer not to talk about such issues

Around three million Christians live in Pakistan, a country which is more than 96 per cent Muslim.

When Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founder, set out his vision he declared citizens “may belong to any religion, caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state”.

Yet, seven decades on, the country has become more Islamicised and Christians and other religious minorities face discrimination by society and attacks by extremist militants. Prejudice often locks them in poverty.

In January, the US State Department placed Pakistan on a special watch list for “severe violations of religious freedom”.

Attacks on churches by militant groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) have killed scores of people.

At the same time, in a country where insulting Islam is an incendiary accusation that can quickly provoke mob violence, the country’s blasphemy laws are being used to suppress religious minorities, human rights groups claim. So far, the anger of the hardline religious protesters over Asia Bibi’s acquittal has been directed at the authorities, rather than the Christian community.

But protests are unpredictable and a feeling of fear and helplessness hangs over the colony, said a 69-year-old church elder, also called Younis Masih.