Christian brothers charged with blasphemy in Pakistan, face life in prison

By Christian Daily International/Morning Star News, Thursday, August 29, 2024

Police officials and residents stand amid debris outside the torched Saint John Church in Jaranwala on the outskirts of Faisalabad on August 17, 2023, a day after an attack by Muslim men following the spread of false accusations that Christians had desecrated a copy of the Quran, the Islamic holy book. Police were guarding a Christian neighborhood in central Pakistan on August 17, after hundreds of Muslim men rampaged through its streets setting fire to churches and ransacking homes over accusations of blasphemy a day earlier. | Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images

Two Christian brothers in Pakistan were arrested and charged with blasphemy on Tuesday after they were accused of desecrating pages of the Quran, sources said.

Tabish Shahid and Kalu Shahid, 18-year-old sons of Shahid Masih of Kalay Wala Tehsil, Kasur District, Punjab Province, were arrested on the complaint of a Muslim, Ghulam Mustafa, after the illiterate brothers were alleged to have torn pages of the Quran.

Desecrating the Quran carries a life sentence in Muslim-majority Pakistan, but intent must be proven for a conviction.

Mustafa alleged that on Monday night the brothers desecrated quranic pages at a local village fair.

“The boys were making TikTok videos by throwing fake currency notes and bits of paper during the annual Urs [anniversary] at the shrine of Baba Ronaq Shah when some locals noticed quranic verses on the torn paper,” Mustafa stated in the First Information Report (FIR) registered under Section 295-B of Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy statutes.

Sajid Christopher of the Human Friends Organization said the brothers were illiterate and belonged to a poor family.

“Tabish and Kalu had gone to the shrine to watch the Urs celebrations and make TikTok videos,” Christopher told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “When they saw other people throwing money into the air in jubilation, the boys thought of having some fun. Due to their illiteracy and ignorance, the two did not realize that they had inadvertently torn pages of a quranic booklet placed nearby.”

Family members of the young men surrendered them to the police after officials took their mother and a maternal uncle into custody, Christopher said.

“Their father Shahid Masih worked at a brick kiln, but he had recently started working as a mason,” he said. “The boys had also begun working at a local factory just a few days before this incident.”

Christopher said the family contacted his organization for legal support, which engaged a Muslim lawyer, Chaudhry Imtiaz, to defend the brothers.

Stressing the need to raise awareness about the threat of blasphemy accusations among the illiterate poor, Christopher said many accused Christians lack basic education.

“While it’s true that a majority of blasphemy allegations arise from personal disputes and rivalries, there are instances where Christians have found themselves in trouble due to their illiteracy,” Christopher said. “Church and civil society organizations should focus on this aspect as well to prevent people from getting implicated in these cases.”

Mustafa alleged in his FIR that the incident had hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims.

Local sources on condition of anonymity told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News that some Christian families in the village fled their homes due to fears of violence.

“The situation has normalized now after the boys’ surrendered to police, but there were fears that Islamist groups may target their homes,” a source said.

In Jaranwala Tehsil of Faisalabad District, Punjab Province, a Muslim mob on Aug. 16, 2023, ransacked 25 churches and more than 80 homes of Christians after two brothers were accused of desecrating the Quran and writing blasphemous content. The brothers were discharged from the case after eight months after it was found that they had been falsely accused by another Christian.

Nearly 3,000 persons have been accused of blasphemy since 1987, according to the Center for Social Justice. The actual scale of abuse of these laws may be three to four times higher, it noted in a report.

It stated that hundreds of accused were incarcerated last year in Pakistan, with 552 detained in prisons in Punjab Province alone. In June 2024, at least 350 persons were behind bars, according to the report, adding that 103 new persons had been accused of blasphemy between January and June 2024.

Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian, as it was the previous year.

This article was originally published by Christian Daily International–Morning Star News.

Christian Daily International provides biblical, factual and personal news, stories and perspectives from every region, focusing on religious freedom, holistic mission and other issues relevant for the global Church today.

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