Pakistani military operations in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan have steered clear of North Waziristan, allowing the area to become a haven for militants. Tribal and local intelligence sources say some 15,000 militants shelter in this semiautonomous tribal belt.
PRAY for these 5 persons to be brought to justice and for the dissolving of their networks and operations:
1. Sirajuddin Haqqani
He is head of the Haqqani network and believed to be the main bridge between Al Qaeda, Afghan Taliban, and militant outfits in North Waziristan. Known among jihadis as “Khalifa” and the “soul of Jihad,” Mr. Haqqani has ties to Al Qaeda's Ayman al Zawahiri.
He is the son of commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former Taliban minister for tribal affairs. Siraj’s four brothers – Nasiruddin, Badruddin, Khalil, and Ibrahim – are the group's military shura (council). Nasiruddin is believed to have conducted fundraising in Saudi Arab and other Gulf states between 2006 and 2009. Badruddin handles politics, settling disputes between militant outfits. Siraj's youngest brother, Mohammed, was killed in February this year by a US drone strike. The Haqqani network mainly operates along the border with Afghanistan's Khost province.
2. Hafiz Gul Bahadur
Mr. Bahadur is believed to be based between Miramshah and the Afghan border. He hit the headlines when his militia fought against Pakistan’s security forces in 2006-08 and again when he struck peace deals in 2009.
It is reported that each of the nine members of his Shura, or council, commands up to 1,000 local tribesmen, apportioning control of various areas across North Waziristan. Bahadur is honored as a descendant of legendary tribal warrior Fakir of Ippi, who fought against the British rule in the subcontinent. This lineage affords the cleric immense influence, both religiously and politically.
He severed formal ties with the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), but still reportedly provides shelter to its militants.
3. Moulvi Noor Saeed Wazir
Another 3,000 TTP militants operate under the leadership of this local commander known for his ruthlessness. His stronghold is his home region, the Razmak Valley, which links North and South Waziristan. He is reported to be illiterate, and until a few years ago ran a grocery shop.
4. Qari Hussain
Widely considered the deadliest of all commanders, Mr. Hussain is reported to be second in the TTP’s hierarchy, after his cousin Hakim Ullah Mehsud. His expertise lies in producing teenage suicide bombers. He is believed to have trained the Jordanian militant Humam Khalil Muhammad Abu Mulal al Balawi, who blew himself up in Khost, killing seven CIA personnel last December.
5. Ilyas Kashmiri
The notorious Kashmiri leads a militia of around 3,000 men. He is operations chief of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, a group the US government classifies as a terror organization with ties to Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Punjabi Taliban. He is accused of being behind the 2009 suicide attack on Pakistan’s spy agency in Peshawar. He's also accused of carrying out attacks against senior military officials and cross-border attacks against US forces.
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18
A worker in North Africa writes:
“A couple of weeks ago, the group in my city met to pray. I forgot I was supposed to prepare something for the group, so we decided to sit and ask the Lord what he wanted us to pray for. We heard, ‘prayers of hope’, ‘delighting and resting in God’ - and I had a picture of a wheat field ripe for harvest, and there was a heavy wind blowing off the heads of grain, but some were clinging on. We again asked the Lord how we should use this to pray, and very clearly two out of three of us heard prayer for the local church. So we used these words and images to pray powerfully for the local church. Perhaps you all can, too!”
“Soon after this prayer time, I met with a local believer. Right now, she is the only one we are meeting with in our city regularly who is really thirsty for the Truth. We pray regularly for more like her and that she would have a local body…this was included in our prayers that day. Well, when I met with her, she told me that recently she had had a dream (she often has spiritually significant dreams). She was in the desert with no one around, and off in the distance, she saw a palm tree. She walked the long distance to the tree, and she was very tired; then she noticed a small hole in the sand under the tree. She started to dig and clear away the sand around this hole to see what was under the ground and came to a glass ceiling under the Sertraline sands, and she was so happy. We prayed together this would be. It still hasn’t come to be, but we continue to pray. We ask for the Holy Spirit to keep moving in our land. And we ask for the remembrance of this special dream to keep hope and faith alive!”
Praying for North Africa:
• As God to build His church in North Africa!
• Pray for those who are isolated believers to be encouraged, to meet with God on their own and to grow in their faith. Pray that God would bring isolated believers together.
• Pray for house churches to be planted and to grow in number and maturity.
• Pray that believers would over come fear and be willing to meet together. Pray that secret believers will have courage to declare their faith and be able to meet with others.
• Pray for national leaders for the house churches. Pray for these leaders to grow in knowledge and understanding, that they would have a passion for the Word. Pray that they would develop intimate quiet times with the Lord and that they would hear His voice and know His leading and wisdom.
• Pray for good discipling to take place. For older believers to mentor younger believers with wisdom and love. For workers to disciple and mentor nationals with humility and servant hearts. For more Bible training to be made available. For good teaching materials to be made available in the local dialects.
• Pray for an increased boldness and heart for evangelism so that North Africans will take more and more responsibility for reaching their own nations.
Please see this disturbing message from Juba on the situation in the Nuba Mountains. Right now many people, including children, are facing a life/death situation. Norman Johnson who leads a prayer network for Sudan writes: “May we be moved by the love of Christ to compassion for these people. Please lift them to the Father’s throne of grace and for an outcome for the situation in the Sudan. Pray for the fulfilling of God’s destiny with the nations of Sudan/South Sudan.” He has included this letter from a ministry leader inside Sudan who describes the current conflict and suffering of the people:
Dear Norman,
I have seen what happens when the world turns its back and looks the other way. For 20 years, I have worked in Sudan, helping its people struggle through the horrors of starvation and murderous attacks. During Sudan’s civil war, the people in the south were being butchered. Shocking, it took the deaths of more than 2 million before the world finally called it genocide.
When President George W. Bush came to office, he didn’t look the other way. Instead, he engaged all parties and forced them to sit down to negotiate what we hoped would be an end to the violence. Those discussions resulted in the agreement that led to the independence of South Sudan.
I was in President Omar al-Bashir’s office on the day the International Criminal Court indicted him for war crimes. I pleaded with Mr. Bashir to continue the peace process, explaining that although he could not change what he had done in the past, he could set a new course for his people by working for a lasting peace. Two years later, on July 9, 2011, I was in Juba sitting behind Mr. Bashir as he gave a speech during the Republic of South Sudan’s independence ceremonies. He spoke of peace, but within days, he began to attack his own people in South Kordofan and the upper Blue Nile.
Last week, I traveled to South Kordofan where 800,000 people slowly are being annihilated, victims of ethnic cleansing. According to Mr. Bashir, their only crime is that they are black and they won’t bow to his radical Islamic government. For the past nine months, the world has largely looked the other way with this humanitarian crisis.
The situation is desperate. I personally saw children starving to death last week while in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains. All they had to eat were insects, leaves from thorn bushes, roots and tree bark. It is only going to get worse.”
Please pray for an end to the conflict that restarted after some years of peace and the partition of Sudan into two nations. May healing and reconciliation come to these two nations that have so many reasons to cooperate for the betterment of both.
Indonesia: ’What happens now?’
Stadiums full, hundreds of thousands from all denominations, countries and generations gathering, millions tuning in – this was the biggest prayer meeting the world had ever seen. So, three weeks after the World Prayer Assembly in Indonesia the question is ‘What happens now?’ A founding visionary behind the first International Prayer Gathering in Seoul, South Korea in 1984 said that if history is anything to go by ‘What happens now could change ‘mission’ as we know it. ’At the 1984 Assembly there were 7,000 delegates from 70 countries with almost 300,000 Koreans in the large prayer gatherings. It was life-changing and birthed what we know as the modern prayer movement. The Korean church came alive to missions and out of it they began to pray and 10,000 missionaries were sent out over the next 20 years all over the world. You will not find a nation on earth today where there’s not a Korean missionary.’ So - what happens now?
Pray: for many to partner with them in prayer as they move forward in the momentum of the World Prayer Assembly. (Hab.2:14)
More: http://www.24-7prayer.com/features/1787
Zambia/Mozambique: Sub-Saharan African Church
On the outside, they are dressed in the uniform of the church that they attend. They are known by their colours and the ‘chitenges’ (fabric skirts) that personify their church. Purple means Baptist, red means Reformed Church, and Blue means Jehovah’s Witnesses. On the outside they seem to adhere to the teachings of their church, but on the inside they cling to African traditional religion which holds closely to ancestor worship and spirit worship. On the outside they look clean and religious, but on the inside they are in bondage and seeking freedom.
Pray: that the Nsenga people will heed the words of Christ and have a relationship with Him and no other. (Mat.23:26)
Nigeria: Blast wreaks bloodshed on two Churches in Bauchi,
A suicide bomber crashed the gate of a church compound in this northern Nigerian city this morning, killing himself and at least 10 others and leaving more than 30 injured, according to eyewitnesses and officials. The Islamic extremist Boko Haram group was suspected of detonating the bomb at the gate of Living Faith Church as members were leaving an early morning worship service. The explosion also brought down a wall of the adjacent Harvest Field church, an eyewitness told Compass. ‘Security agents who were within the vicinity of the two churches tried to force the suicide bomber to stop at a security checkpoint, but the bomber crashed his car into the gates of one of the two churches, the Living Faith church, killing many people and injuring many others,’ said Kyemme Nzarmo, a student at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi.
Pray: for peace in Nigeria, that God would enable a breakthrough and that extremists will cease their atrocities. (Ps.34:14)
More: http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/nigeria/article_1574817.html
Syria: US urges China and Russia to be ‘part of solution in Syria
On Tuesday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, ‘We believe there is a way forward and we are ready to pursue that. And we invite the Russians and the Chinese to be part of the solution.’ She spoke after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Hu Jintao agreed at a meeting in Beijing that they would work together more closely at the United Nations.Pres Jintao said the two giant neighbours could together ‘set the global political and economic order in a more fair and rational direction.’ The combination appeared to be a setback for Clinton’s efforts to get international backing for a political transition in Syria, ultimately including the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On Wednesday she met with leaders from European powers and regional states that are increasingly fearful of a descent into all-out civil war in Syria, with destabilizing dangers for its neighbours.
Pray: for Russia and China to work positively with the United Nations to bring about a peaceful end to massacres and avoid a civil war in the region. (Mat.5:9)
Cuba: Calls for greater ecumenical partnerships
The newly elected president of the Council of Churches in Cuba (CIC) says he believes Pentecostal and historic churches can work together ‘because God calls us to be God's people.’ The Rev Joel Ortega Dopico, of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, called on the leaders of the churches to take advantage of the moment to think about social, ecclesiastical and ecumenical projects, ‘for what we lack to be able to come together as a Cuban family.’ In his sermon at the Council's assembly where the new leadership of CIC was installed, Ortega referred to the encounter of the rich man with Jesus and pointed out the need for a greater commitment to the cause of the Kingdom of God. 'It is a Biblical narrative of hope', he said, because it allows Pentecostal and historic churches to be united, past and present generations to meet together, as well as believers and non-believers.
Pray: for the churches of Cuba to draw closer together in unity building the Kingdom of God. (Jn.17:20-22)
More: http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5707
China: Churches requested to desist
Authorities in China’s Sichuan province have asked a large house church to stop all its activities, the church's pastor told Radio Free Asia. ‘The authorities have asked us to end our family church congregations, calling our gatherings 'illegal,' said Pastor Li, spiritual head of a 1,500-member house church in Sichuan’s Langzhong city. Li said the government's ‘request’ was sent to the home of a church member, not to the church's meeting place. Chinese authorities have recently increased restrictions on house churches whose total membership estimated to be about 40 million. ‘The severity of the crackdown on family churches varies in different places,’ said Zhang Mingxuan, president of the Chinese Association of Christian Family Churches. ‘In places where there are many family churches, the local government may have a better understanding of them, and officials will be more prudent. But in places where you have only a few believers, local authorities will treat them as an ‘evil cult.’’
Pray: that these moves ordering churches to stop their activities would cease. (Ps.140:4)
More: http://www.worthynews.com/11522-chinese-church-requested-to-desist
Eritrea: Kidnapped women forced to embrace Islam In Egypt
There was concern on Tuesday, June 5, over the whereabouts of two Eritrean women who were among a group kidnapped in Cairo by men claiming to be police officers, underscoring the risks faced by Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt, including Christians, rights activists said. The two missing persons were among six young women, aged between 20 to 32, who were reportedly abducted after boarding a taxi and later pressured to embrace Islam. ‘In each instance, the taxi was stopped by men in police uniforms, who opened the door and sprayed an unknown substance into their faces, causing them to lose consciousness,’ said advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which has investigated the case. One of the women, who was abducted on her way to church and held for approximately three weeks, said that after awaking she found herself in a small room housing five other women.
Pray: for these women that God would protect them and others under the threat of abduction. (Ps.32:7)
More: http://www.bosnewslife.com/21954-kidnapped-eritrean-forced-to-embrace-islam-in-egypt