RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (UCAN) -- Christians imprisoned in Punjab province have ended a four-day hunger strike after their jail's chapel was reopened.

About 150 inmates offered a collective thanksgiving prayer in the chapel after the deputy superintendent of Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi decided on March 22 to reopen the chapel, which had been commandeered to hold an overflow of protesting lawyers. Rawalpindi is adjacent to Islamabad, the national capital.

The trouble arose after jail authorities used the chapel to detain a large group of lawyers arrested in a protest against a decision by President General Pervez Musharaff's on March 9 to remove Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry from office.

According to media reports, Justice Chaudhry was suspended for misconduct, allegedly using his influence to seek a position for his son in a government department, and for demanding special treatment.

However, some critics claim his suspension is linked to his directing the government to find and release missing persons who, according to their relatives, are being illegally detained by intelligence agencies.

Lawyers and others on March 16 took to the streets in Islamabad and neighboring Rawalpindi in the biggest ever protest against Musharraf, who took power in a military coup in October 1999. The demonstration left 50 people injured and at least 700 arrested.

Three days later, due to insufficient jail cells, prison authorities removed bibles, pictures and altar from the chapel and dumped many lawyers in it. The whitewashed room, located inside the jail's laundry, had been reserved for Christian worship.

This initiative prompted more than 30 inmates to protest the chapel's closure with a hunger strike. According to local newspapers, they refused food until the administration allowed them to perform religious rituals. The prison is one of just two of Pakistan's 31 jails that have a chapel. The other is Kot Lakhpat Central Jail in Lahore, 270 kilometers southeast of Islamabad.

On March 22, more than 50 Christians demonstrated in front of Lahore Press Club against the discriminatory attitude toward minority prisoners. The protesters chanted in Urdu, "Allow religious freedom in jails" and "Praying in prison is a constitutional right of Christian prisoners," and carried banners condemning the desecration of the jail's chapel.

They also demanded that Adiala Jail's deputy superintendent, Saifullah Gondal, immediately be removed and a blasphemy case to be filed against him.

The protest was organized by Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan (SLMP), a Protestant NGO working for Christian inmates, Young Christian Workers, Pakistan Christian National Party and other human rights organizations.

Sohail Johnson, Sharing Life Ministry's chief coordinator, told UCA News that Gondal closed the same chapel and banned Christian prisoners from praying in a "covered room," a room set aside as a chapel, when he was temporarily assigned to the same prison in 2001.

Pakistan Prison Rule 681, concerning "matters affecting caste or religion," outlaws undue interference with prisoners' religion and says "every prisoner shall be allowed to offer his devotions in a quiet and orderly manner."

According to Johnson, Muslim prisoners have congregational prayers every Friday and during Islamic festivals, and are given food to open and break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan, but no parallel policy is provided for Christians during Lent. Other clauses of Rule 681 state that, except condemned prisoners and prisoners in punishment cells, all prisoners are allowed congregational prayers on Fridays and during Islamic festivals.

It also states that "a Maulvi (Muslim cleric) from outside may be permitted to lead the prayers," and orders Sehri (morning meals) to be cooked overnight and "issued to Muslim prisoners fresh and hot" during the month of Ramadan.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission has condemned the mass arrests of lawyers. In a statement issued on March 23, it asserted that "in light of the mishandling of this judicial crisis, the government's continued use of brutal force against lawyers, journalists, politicians and human rights activists, there is now a moral obligation for the administration to step aside and give power back to the people of Pakistan."

Lawyers nationwide are still boycotting courts and observing hunger strikes.

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