Islamabad: Police in Pakistan arrested dozens of people after a mob beat a Christian couple to death and burned their bodies for allegedly desecrating a copy of Holy Qur’an. Blasphemy is a serious offence in Pakistan. Local media reported the Christian couple were accused of burning a copy of the Qur’an and throwing it in a rubbish bin in the province of Punjab. Police said their bodies were set on fire in a brick kiln.
“We have arrested 44 people, it was a local issue incited by the mullah of a local mosque,” Jawad Qamar, a regional police chief, said. “No particular sectarian group or religious outfit was behind the attack.”
Meanwhile, relatives said that the couple was locked inside a brick-making factory before their murder to prevent them from fleeing. Shehzad Masih and Shama Bibi, who was four months pregnant and a mother to three children, were later beaten by a crowd of up to 1,500 villagers and then throw them on top of a lit furnace, witnesses said.
By the time the mob left, only charred bones and their discarded shoes remained. Jawad Qamar said according to initial reports events began to unfold more than a week earlier with the death of Shehzad’s father, a local religious healer. “When he died, Shehzad’s wife went to his room and cleaned up the mess. There was a trunk in his room, Shehzad’s wife took the things that could be useful and threw the trash in front of her house,” said Qamar.
“The garbage collector collected the trash the next day and told a local cleric that he had collected pages of the Qur’an thrown in front of Shehzad’s house from the trash.” Iqbal Masih, Shehzad’s older bother, said that he and his whole family were bonded workers paying off their debts to the brick kiln owner, a man named Mohamed Yousuf. “We take advance money from the owner and work for him, it has been going on for years. On November 3, the owner had called Iqbal and detained him sensing that he might run away to save his life,” he said tearfully.
Policeman kills blasphemy suspect with axe
Lahore: In another tragic case, a policeman used an axe to kill a man arrested on blasphemy allegations. Tufail Haider, a 50-year-old from the minority Shiite sect of Islam, was arrested for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the companions of the Prophet Mohammed and brought to the Civil Lines police station in the eastern city of Gujrat.
"Tufail was kept in the lock-up but he continued uttering derogatory remarks and hurled abuse at policemen. He looked like a malang (wandering preacher) and seemed mentally imbalanced," duty officer Ali Raza said. Assistant Sub-Inspector Faraz Naveed became very angry on hearing the derogatory remarks and killed the detainee with an axe in the lock-up.
