Blasphemy-Accused Pakistani Christian Succumbs To Injuries

(UCA News) -- An elderly Pakistani Christian, who was accused of blaspheming last week and attacked, has succumbed to his injuries, his family members and police confirmed.

Nazir Masih, 74, died in the early hours of June 3 at a hospital in Rawalpindi near the national capital, Islamabad, while undergoing treatment for his injuries, said Khizar Hayat, an investigating officer in Punjab province.

He was buried in Mujahid colony, a Christian neighborhood in the Sargodha district of Punjab, in the presence of his relatives and hundreds of mourners on the same day, his family members confirmed.

Masih was seriously injured after a mob of some 1,000 Muslims attacked him with stones, bricks and iron rods on May 25 after local Muslims accused him of committing blasphemy by burning pages of the Quran.

Besides his home, the attackers reportedly ransacked Masih’s shoe factory in the colony and set it on fire.

Police rescued Masih and his family members, and he was rushed to a hospital for treatment.

Police officer Hayat said Masih’s body was released for burial after a postmortem while investigations over the blasphemy rampage continue.

“Twenty-nine persons have been detained and placed on a judicial remand for interrogation. The identification parade for another 35 is scheduled for today,” he told UCA News on June 3.

Doctors at the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi conducted brain surgery on Masih for multiple head injuries, but he did not survive, said Adnan Gill, Masih’s nephew.

“We are victims of a huge tyranny,” Gill lamented.

The mob attack sparked widespread condemnation and angry street protests from minority Christians across Pakistan.

Christian leaders, including Catholic bishops, visited the Christian colony of Mashi, home to over 200 families, half of them Catholics.

As the news of Masih’s death spread, hundreds of Christians posted on social media sites to express their anger and called for justice and an end to the abuse of the country’s draconian blasphemy law.

Church of Pakistan president Bishop Azad Marshall expressed shock over the death via his social media post on June 3.

“Today, every single Pakistani should be weighed by grief, not only for the atrocities in a foreign land but right here,” he stated.

“Yet again, hate has brought us to the place where we must ask questions. The question is not ‘Where will this stop?’ because beyond the devastation of homes and lives, beyond the brutal killing of a hard-working man, beyond the devastation of a community and the grief of a family, we have already come too far!” Marshal wrote.

Christian leaders allege the country's blasphemy law is often exploited to target individual Christians and the community to settle scores in personal and land disputes.  

Christian political and religious leaders should develop a strategy to end abuses of the blasphemy law, said Roheel Zafar Shahi, secretary-general of the Pakistan Minority Rights Commission, a minority forum.

“Another innocent Christian lost his life to religious extremists. Sadly, neither the state nor our representatives are serious about a permanent solution,” he said.

Pakistan’s blasphemy law makes defamation of Islam and Prophet Mohammad serious crimes warranting life and death sentences.