Imagine with me for a moment if you were sitting at home and minding your own business celebrating Easter with some friends of yours from church, and then out of nowhere the police barged into your home and took your bibles and other Christian materials. How would you feel? What would you do? Unfortunately, this is something we don't have to imagine for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Uzbekistan because it happened to them only a few weeks ago. Here is a shortened version of a report from The Voice of the Martyrs about what happened.
The Voice of the Martyrs’ staff in Uzbekistan report that on April 16th, police in the city of Nukus burst into a private home of Christians celebrating Easter with friends, searched the home and seized passports and Christian materials without giving receipts. Police confiscated the passports of three Turkmen Christians―Bakhtiyer Gazhayev, Mader Baltayev and Ikram Saburov―as well as the passport of the Uzbek woman hosting the gathering. Believers present were forced to write statements explaining why they were having tea with the group and what they were talking about. Police took the passports knowing the serious problems the Turkmen could face. After three days without such documentation, the three would have been detained in Uzbekistan and imprisoned in Turkmenistan for violating passport codes.
Two days later, with less than 24 hours left before their allowed stay in Uzbekistan expired, police had still not returned the Turkmen believers’ passports. On this evening, a VOM worker visiting Nukus met with the three Turkmen Christians, who told him about the injustice taking place. He went straight to the local police chief and demanded an explanation of why the passports were taken and when they would be returned. Initially, the chief indignantly refused to answer. The VOM worker warned him that in several minutes, the whole world would know about the persecution of Christians in Uzbekistan, especially about its treatment of foreign Christians. The police chief relented and said the Turkmens’ passports would be returned the next day. When the VOM worker insisted he would stay until he personally saw them returned, the police chief exclaimed, “All right! We’ll give them their passports back today.” With only 15 minutes left before the office closed for the day, the police called the three Turkmen Christians in one by one and returned their passports. Bakhtiyer, Mader and Ikram returned home to Turkmenistan the following morning. The Uzbek believer hosting the Easter gathering did not receive her passport that day. A young police lieutenant explained, “You see, our civil workers have the passport of your Uzbek Christian.” The “civil workers” were plainclothes KGB officers. The Voice of the Martyrs is thankful for the opportunity to be the voice of Christians who are oppressed by those hostile to the gospel.
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