THE brutal murder of a young couple in Pakistan, who were beaten to death for allegedly desecrating the Koran, has increased fears of persecution among the country’s tiny Christian minority.
Around 45 people have been arrested in connection with the brutal murder of the Christian couple, who were beaten unconscious then reportedly burnt to death in a brick kiln.
The murder occurred in the town of Kot Radha Kishan in the eastern Punjab province where Shehzad Masih and Shama Bibi, who was four months pregnant and a mother of three, were murdered in front of a crowd of 1500.
They had earlier been locked in the brick-making factory where they worked to prevent them from fleeing their debts, relatives said.
The murders have sparked protests by Christians and outrage among human rights activists who say the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, under which anyone convicted of insulting Islam can be sentenced to death, are often used to settle personal scores and target minorities.
Jawad Qamar, a local police official, said 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 Koran thrown in front of Shehzad’s house from the trash.”
Malik Abdul Aziz, a cameraman who witnessed the event, said around 1,500 people gathered from nearby villages after being stoked up by local clerics who announced the couple had committed blasphemy over the loudspeakers of their mosques.
“They started beating the couple with sticks and bricks chanting slogans of ‘We will lay down our lives for the honour of the prophet’ and then tore off their clothes”.
“The couple were screaming, begging for mercy and saying they have not committed any sin.
“The mob dragged them for around 20 yards and laid them on top of the brick kiln oven and kept them there till they were burnt,” he added.
It has since emerged that the couple owed a large sum of money to the owner of the factory.
Iqbal Masih, Shehzad’s older bother, said he and his whole family were bonded workers paying off their debts to the brick kiln owner, a man named Mohammed Yousuf — an illegal practice branded by human rights groups as akin to modern-day slavery.
“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 Shehzad and detained him sensing that he might run away to save his life,” he said tearfully.
The blasphemy laws were introduced by the Islamist military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s but although hundreds have been convicted of blasphemy, nobody in Pakistan has ever been executed for the offence as most convictions are retracted after the accused makes an appeal.
However human rights activists say the laws are increasingly abused to attack Christians who are experiencing widespread persecution in the country where 97 per cent of the population of 180 million are Muslim. In 2013, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the courtyard of Peshawar’s all Saints Church, killing 82 people and injuring scores of others but it is the blasphemy laws which the country’s Christians have come to fear most.
Dozens of people who have been accused of insulting Islam or the prophet Mohammed have been killed by mobs even if the allegations are unproven while others have languished in prison for years.
In 2010 Asia Bibi, an impoverished 48-year-old farmer, was sentenced to death after her neighbours accused her of insulting Mohammad. According to Bibi, she was involved in a dispute after women field workers said they would not drink water from the same bowl because she was not a Muslim. She said they attacked her, slapping her and pulling her hair. They allegedly later went to the police and accused her of making derogatory remarks about Islam’s prophet.
Bibi’s sentencing triggered an outcry among human rights groups and the international community but her fate has for the most part been forgotten.
Those who take part in violence against people accused of blasphemy are rarely if ever prosecuted — a fact not lost upon the relatives of Shehzad Masih and Shama Bibi.
“I need justice but I am sure I won’t be able to get it, the clerics are too powerful,” Shehzad’s brother Iqbal said.
Tahir Ashrafi, a member of the Council of Islamic Ideology, Pakistan’s top religious body, held police responsible for failing to act to protect the couple before the mob violence occurred.
“This case must go to an anti-terrorism court and the culprits must be arrested and punished, including the mullah (who made the blasphemy accusation in mosque) if he’s involved,” he said.
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