A Muslim in Pakistan on Friday (March 21) slashed the throat of a Christian co-worker on allegations that he had committed blasphemy by touching an Islamic textbook “with unclean hands,” sources said.
The attack on Waqas Masih, 22, took place at Subhan Allah Paper Mills in the Sharaqpur area of Sheikhupura District, Punjab Province, said his father, Riyasat Masih.
“The factory’s shift in-charge, Zohaib Iftikhar, attacked my son with a cutter blade, slashing his jugular vein,” Masih, a member of the Brethren Church and father of six, told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “My son courageously fought back the assailant despite blood gushing out of his throat.”
Mill management rushed Waqas Masih to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment that saved his life, and they also prevented the suspect from fleeing the scene, handing him over to police, he said. His son was later transferred to Mayo Hospital in Lahore, where he underwent surgery and was recovering.
After regaining consciousness, Waqas Masih wrote a statement from his hospital bed in which he stated that Iftikhar accused him of desecrating a copy of an Islamiyat Islamic textbook with “unclean hands” and attacked him.
Waqas Masih also stated that Iftikhar had engaged him in religious discussions and pressured him to convert to Islam on various occasions.
“We think that Iftikhar falsely used the blasphemy allegation to target Waqas because he was not surrendering to his demands for conversion,” Masih said.
A resident of Bhatti Dhulwan Housing Colony in Sheikhupura District, Masih said his son had taken a contract to collect wastepaper from the mill six months ago.
Napolean Qayyum of Christian legal organization HARDS Pakistan said his group helped the family in booking Iftikhar in an attempted murder case.
“We are standing with the family in their pursuit for justice for their son, who was falsely targeted with a blasphemy accusation and nearly lost his life,” Qayyum told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The accused must be punished in accordance with the law, and the police must also ensure protection of the victim’s family.”
Blasphemy is an incendiary charge for many in Pakistan, with unsubstantiated accusations inciting public outrage that can lead to lynchings. Nazeer Masih Gill, a Christian attacked in May after being accused of burning pages of the Quran, died shortly afterwards. In August 2023, Muslim mobs attacked Christian neighborhoods in Jaranwala, Faisalabad District, burning down multiple churches and homes after two brothers were falsely accused of writing blasphemous content and desecrating the Quran.
Pakistan has also witnessed a sharp increase in the prosecution of “online blasphemy” cases in the last two years, with private vigilante groups bringing charges against hundreds of young individuals, including Christians for allegedly committing blasphemy.
Expressing alarm over an increase in false blasphemy accusations in Pakistan, the U.N. Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on Nov. 7 urged repeal or amending of the country’s widely condemned blasphemy laws.
The committee noted that false blasphemy accusations led to Islamist mob violence and recommended amending the laws in accordance with requirements of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In its concluding observations of the committee’s second periodic report on Pakistan, it stated concern over sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carry severe penalties, including the death penalty, and have a disproportionate impact on religious minorities.
“It is also concerned about the increasing number of persons incarcerated under blasphemy charges, the high number of blasphemy cases based on false accusations, violence against those accused of blasphemy, fostering vigilante justice, and allegations of entrapment of persons, in particular young persons, on accusations of on-line blasphemy under cybercrime laws,” the committee stated.
Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.
