Pakistan: Kot Radha Kishan lynching: Family being pressured to withdraw case

Relatives of the Kot Radha Kishan lynching victims say they are facing threats and being pressured into withdrawing the case. The family members told a press conference on Monday that they were being offered land and money as compensation for the murders of Shama and Shehzad Masih. Shehzad’s brother Shahbaz Masih and his wife Parveen Masih demanded that the government provide them with protection. They said they had already informed the Kasur district police officer of the threats.

They also demanded the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the mob violence incident. The family said that minority representatives should be included in the joint investigation team (JIT) assigned to the case.

“All we want is fair investigation of the case,” said Shahbaz, while demanding that Justice Waheed Saddiqui, a retired Federal Shariat Court judge, be included in judicial commission members.

They called for the commission and the JIT to make their reports publicly available immediately after completion of the inquiry.

Shahbaz also urged the Supreme Court take suo moto notice and order an inquiry into the attack.

Pakistan Interfaith League (PIL) Chairman Sajid Ishaq said that it was a test case for the country as government itself is a complainant in the case. “The government registered the case, terming the allegations of blasphemy false and baseless,” he said.

He demanded exemplary punishment for the culprits so that no one misuses religion as an excuse to ‘resolve’ personal enmities in the future. He said, “If the perpetrators of Gojra, Joseph Colony and the Rimsha Masih case had been punished, no one would have dared to burn Shehzad and his wife.” He said the victims’ family was feeling insecure and fearing another extremist attack. “We want the government to relocate the family to a safer place to protect them from the people pressuring them,” said Ishaq.

PIL Executive Director Nazia Ansari said it was time the government took steps to check the incidence of mob violence in blasphemy cases.