|
|
||||||
Lead story - Friday January 21, 2005PAKISTAN : ENRAGED MUSLIM CHOPS OFF CHRISTIAN’S ARMDeath threats force victim into hiding.
Shahbaz Masih, 22, was approached last November 28 by a customer wanting to rent a television set from his video shop in Talwandi, a little village near Chak Jhumra in Faisalabad district. When Masih declined the request, his customer, a 26-year-old butcher named Ahmed Ali, became furious, declaring the Christian had insulted him.
“How dare you, a poor Christian, refuse my request?” he reportedly shouted at Masih before he left the shop. Returning home, Ahmed Ali consulted with his father, Maqsood Ahmed, also a butcher. Shortly afterwards he went back searching for Masih, armed with a butcher’s ax.
Ahmed Ali forced his way into Masih’s house and attacked the shop owner, chopping off his left arm near the elbow. He left the house threatening the victim and his widowed mother, Munawar Bibi, with even more “dire consequences” for the alleged insult he had endured.
Later that same day, Masih was admitted for emergency treatment at the Allied Hospital in Faisalabad. After his discharge from the hospital four days later, the young man was forced to close his shop, take his mother and leave their village to go into hiding.
Suspect Arrested Only After Church Intervention When Masih’s parish priest in Chak Jhumra reported the incident to Catholic Bishop of Faisalabad Joseph Coutts, the church sent a delegation, including advocate Khalil Tahrir, to seek legal action on the case.
As a result, a First Information Report was filed at the Chak Jhumra police station on November 30, demanding the arrest of Ahmed Ali as the “main accused” and his father as an accomplice in the crime.
Ali was apprehended that day by the Chak Jhumra police, who also recovered the ax used as the crime weapon. Ali was kept in police custody for four days before he was transferred to the Central Jail in Faisalabad.
When police finally located Ali’s father, Ahmed, he promptly obtained pre-arrest bail, with a hearing on his case now set for January 24. According to church sources, local police are under heavy pressure to establish the innocence of both Ahmed and his son.
No date has yet been set for court proceedings against Ali, who remains in prison on four charges of criminal conduct.
Threats Against Victim
“I hope that justice will be done,” said Tahrir, who is representing Masih without charge in the case. “Shahbaz is the only son of his widowed mother and is very, very poor,” the lawyer told Compass this week.
For the time being, the Faisalabad Catholic diocese has covered Masih’s hospital debts and medications, arranging safe lodging for him and his mother in a hidden location along with a minimal monthly sum for their living expenses.
“This is a very difficult thing for this young man,” commented his parish priest, Fr. Yousaf Riaz, “to face this loss for the rest of his life.” But a prosthesis fitted to Masih’s shoulder would cost approximately $2,000 in Pakistan, where the annual per capita income is less than $600.
Chronic Government Inaction According to the current U.S. State Department report on religious freedom in Pakistan, “The lack of an adequate government response contribute[s] to an atmosphere of impunity for acts of violence and intimidation against religious minorities.” Christians represent an estimated three to four percent of the predominantly Muslim population.
|
||||||
