CV NEWS FEED // Minority Christians in Pakistan have joined together in protests across the country following a fatal lynching mob attack in Sargodha, Punjab, that resulted in the death of an elderly Christian man accused of “blasphemy.”
Early in the morning on Saturday, May 25, a violent mob of over 400 people armed with batons, bricks, and stones, brutally attacked two Christian shop owners, Nazil Gill Masih and his son Sultan Gill, after accusations circulated that several burnt pages of the Quran had been found in the garbage the two had put out for collection.
Facebook posts following the attack showed the bloodied bodies of the two men lying in the streets of the Gilwala Mujahid colony, still surrounded by the angry mob.
Nazil Gill Masih was taken to the hospital, but later pronounced dead.
The two shops owned by the father and son were ransacked and set on fire, as were the homes of their 12 remaining relatives, who managed to escape before the mob arrived.
According to a Vatican News report, police have arrested 25 persons in connection with the attack and have registered cases against 450 unknown persons under anti-terrorism laws.
Saturday’s attack in Sargodha marks yet another instance of destruction and mob violence against Christians in the region, where “blasphemy” against Islam has been considered a capital crime since 1981.
As the Vatican News report notes, Christians in the region have declared May 25 a “black day,” and have gathered en masse across the country.
In Faisalabad, over 500 demonstrators gathered at the District Council Chowk in central Punjab and blocked traffic for two hours. Twenty women also burned their headscarves in protest.
For its part, the local Sargodha district administration has allegedly placed a ban on public gatherings until May 31.
The Archbishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Joseph Arshad, told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International two days later that he had been “shocked and very sad to learn about the attack.”
“This incident was inhuman,” Arshad said, adding: “I went immediately to Sargodha, because it is in my diocese, and I had to be with my people, to encourage my people and my priests, and to speak to the administration to see if they are conducting a fair investigation of the incidents.”
“Nobody is allowed to take the law in his own hands, and this is happening in Pakistan,” he continued. “[The government] should introduce policies to ensure that such incidents cannot happen again.”
