REMEMBERING MARTYRS: On February 2, 1960, Esther John was brutally murdered in her bed in Chichawatni, Pakistan.
Esther John was born in British-ruled India with the Indian name of Qamar Zia. After attending a Christian school, she accepted Christ as a teenager. When India was partitioned, Qamar moved with her family to Pakistan, where they pledged her to a Muslim husband. Qamar fled to another city, where she found a missionary who provided her with a Bible and a job working in an orphanage, and she changed her name to Esther John. After completing Bible training, she eventually moved to Chichawatni, where she lived with American Presbyterian missionaries. She took up evangelism among rural women, teaching them the Scriptures and working alongside them in the fields before she was killed. There was no investigation into her death, but she is still remembered today and is likely the first recorded martyr in Pakistan after the country gained independence from India.