Pakistan: Christian couple beaten, burnt to death for alleged blasphemy

According to reports, the incident occurred at Chak 59 village, some 60 kilometres southwest of Lahore city.

 

The deceased were identified as Shahzad and his wife Shama.

 

“The couple were originally from Clarkabad, a Christian village a few kilometeres away from Raiwind but they had been working at Yousaf Gujjar’s brick kiln for the last 3-4 years and were living in a quarter in the premises,” a relative of the deceased couple toldPakistan Today on the condition of anonymity.

 

He said that on Sunday, Shama, wife of the deceased Shahzad Masih, was cleaning her quarters when she found some amulets belonging to her late father-in-law who used to ‘practice’ black magic.

 

“Shama burnt the amulets and threw them on a garbage heap. Irfan, a Muslim co-worker at the kiln, noticed some half burnt pieces of paper from the amulets and raised clamour, claiming that these were pages from the holy Quran, Soon the word spread and at 7am on Tuesday, a Muslim mob of about 3,000-40,000 people attacked the couple’s quarters at the brick kiln and tortured the couple to death. They later threw their bodies into the kiln and completely burnt them,” he said. kiln immediately after the incident.

 

Following the incident, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has constituted a three-member committee to fast track the probe into the incident.