The incident took place in Chak 59 village near Kot Radha Kishan, some 60 kilometres southwest of Lahore, and is the latest example of mob violence against non-Muslims accused of blasphemy.
Sources privy
to the details of the incident told Pakistan Today that Shahzad Masih and his
wife Shama worked in a brick kiln owned by a man named Yousaf Gujjar since the
last 3-4 years.
“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 told Pakistan 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 3,000-4,000 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,
adding that he and some other Christian families who worked at the kiln fled
the kiln immediately after the incident.
He said the
couple, aged between 30 and 35 years had three children while Shama was
expecting a fourth child.
Brick kiln
workers in Pakistan are often subject to harsh practices, with a study by the
Bonded Labour Liberation Front Pakistan estimating that 4.5 million are
indentured labourers.
PakistanToday
Why can't everybody live together in harmony God
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