A Muslim mob in Pakistan on Wednesday (Aug. 7) attacked and tried to kill a Christian mother accused of blasphemy, sources said.
The mob in Kathore village, in Gojra tehsil of Faisalabad District, Punjab Province tried to kill Saima Masih, a 32-year-old mother of two children, after Muhammad Haider accused her of hurting Islamic religious sentiments by desecrating pages of the Quran, said attorney Akmal Bhatti, chairman of the Minorities Alliance Pakistan (MAP).
“The mob would have lynched Saima if the police had not reached there on time and rescued her,” Bhatti told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The mob also reportedly attacked some other Christian residents of the village, forcing them to flee their homes and hide in the fields to save their lives.”
The attorney and political leader said he and his team tried to reach the village as soon as they received information about the incident. There are 30 to 35 Christian families in the village.
When news of the alleged desecration spread, a crowd of nearly 250-300 Muslims blocked the main highway in protest, refusing to let anyone pass, Bhatti said.
“We contacted our sources in the village, and they informed us that the Muslims had beaten up some Christians, raising fears of violence against the community,” he said.
Tensions were high due to the involvement of extremist Islamist groups, he said, adding that the Catholic mother has been arrested and charged, and her family has gone into hiding due to security fears.
“Our sources in the village have told us that Saima denied desecrating the Quran,” Bhatti said. “She reportedly said that her neighbor, Haider, had asked her for an empty sack, which she gave him. However, after some time Haider returned with some other Muslims and accused her of placing defiled pages of the Quran in the sack, which she repeatedly denied.”
He added that the allegation against the Christian woman could be rooted in a personal vendetta of her Muslim neighbors.
The MAP president said that the Gojra Saddar police registered a First Information Report (FIR No. 924/24) against Masih under Section 295-B for desecrating the Quran, which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
According to the complainant, the accused woman put defiled pages of the Quran in a sack in front of her home, which he discovered as he worked collecting scrap paper.
“The police saved Saima’s life but registered a blasphemy case against her under the pressure of the mob, which is very unfair,” Bhatti said. “The poor woman will now have to suffer in prison for years while her two children will be deprived of her love and care.”
He added that he regretted that the government was taking no action against blatant abuse of the blasphemy laws. The MAP chairman said that inaction against perpetrators of violence on the pretext of blasphemy allegations was emboldening Muslim extremists.
“Christians in Punjab are increasingly being targeted through blasphemy accusations, yet our state is not bothered at all,” he said. “If the state had properly prosecuted the accused involved in the Jaranwala incident and the lynching of Nazeer Masih Gill in Sargodha, we could have seen some change in the situation, but unfortunately it seems all of this has some kind of official patronage or our state is too weak to confront these extremist groups.”
Multiple churches and homes of Christians were ransacked and burned by Muslim mobs in Jaranwala on Aug. 16 after two Christian brothers were accused of writing blasphemous content and desecrating the Quran. While the brothers have been cleared of charges, most of the Muslim suspects in the attacks have been released on bail due to defective police investigation and weak follow-up by Christian leaders.
In Sargodha, all of the suspects in the lynching of the 74-year-old Gill and the burning of his house and small shoe-manufacturing factory have also been released on bail because of improper police investigation.
Samson Salamat, chairman of Rawadari Tehreek, or Movement for Equality, said the case against Saima Masih and the reported attempt to thwart planned protest gatherings by Christians on Minorities Day on Sunday (Aug. 11) by the Islamist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) showed that the government lacked the political will to protect Christians from Muslim extremism.
“The state claims it is committed to protecting us, but on the other hand our people continue to be victimized by the draconian blasphemy laws and we are being stopped from expressing our resentment against the misuse of the harsh laws,” Salamat said. “Our voices are being muzzled by the state through their proxy groups.”
The Rawadari Tehreek has given a call for a hunger strike on Aug. 10-11 against religiously-motivated violence to draw global attention towards the persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan under the guise of violation of blasphemy laws.
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.
