PESHAWAR, April 8: Police are searching for a former Khatib of a mosque who is reported to have been converted to Christianity by a pastor of the Jesus Pan Gospel Church in Yousafabad, sources told Dawn here on Friday.

The pastor, it may be mentioned, has been later killed.

They said that Babar Simpson, who was also running a charity through Ilam Dost Welfare Trust, an NGO, had converted a number of Muslims to Christianity, the former Khatib was one of them.

The former Khatib was working for Babar Simpson in poor communities, particularly in Afghan refugee camps, they said.

“Babar Simpson was accused of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity,” said Amin Bhatti, who was his assistant in the church in Yousafabad.

He used to visit refugee camps for charity work, Mr Bhatti said.

Babar Simpson appears to have been killed by some religious extremists, but police wanted to give a different angle to the crime, alleged his younger brother, Adil Sulaiman.

Talking to Dawn at his residence, he said he could not deny that another brother of his, Aamer, had relations with Samina, who was now under police custody.

But Samina and his brother-in-law, Saeed Ahmad, were arrested on the day Babar Simpson and his driver, Danial, had been kidnapped, Mr Adil said.

In the beginning police had told them that Samina and Saeed Ahmad were not involved in the kidnapping, but when they found the bodies of Simpson and Danial they started alleging their involvement in the crime.

The kidnappers had even called a relative of Simpson, demanding Rs3.6 million for his release, he said.

The criminals were actually playing tricks with them because they had already killed their hostages, Adil said, and the phone call demanding ransom had been made to disguise the motive of the killing, he added.

“Babar Simpson was brutally murdered — his nose had been chopped off, and there were signs that the criminals had tortured him before shooting him to death,” said Manzoor Ghori, organizer of the All Pakistan Minority Alliance.

He was the third Christian cleric killed over the past two years, and the government had once again failed to arrest the culprits, he said.

“We will protest if the culprits are not arrested immediately,” Mr Ghori warned.