Muslim Slashes Throat of Christian Co-Employee in Pakistan
Waqas Masih was attacked within the Sharaqpur space of Sheikhupura District, Punjab Province, Pakistan on March 21, 2025. (HARDS Pakistan)
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Every day Worldwide–Morning Star Information) – A Muslim in Pakistan on Friday (March 21) slashed the throat of a Christian co-worker on allegations that he had dedicated blasphemy by touching an Islamic textbook “with unclean arms,” sources mentioned.
The assault on Waqas Masih, 22, befell at Subhan Allah Paper Mills within the Sharaqpur space of Sheikhupura District, Punjab Province, mentioned his father, Riyasat Masih.
“The manufacturing unit’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, informed Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “My son courageously fought again the assailant regardless of blood gushing out of his throat.”
Mill administration rushed Waqas Masih to a close-by hospital for emergency therapy that saved his life, and so they additionally prevented the suspect from fleeing the scene, handing him over to police, he mentioned. His son was later transferred to Mayo Hospital in Lahore, the place he underwent surgical procedure and was recovering.
After regaining consciousness, Waqas Masih wrote a press release from his hospital mattress during which he said that Iftikhar accused him of desecrating a duplicate of an Islamiyat Islamic textbook with “unclean arms” and attacked him.
Waqas Masih additionally said that Iftikhar had engaged him in spiritual discussions and pressured him to transform to Islam on numerous events.
“We predict that Iftikhar falsely used the blasphemy allegation to focus on Waqas as a result of he was not surrendering to his calls for for conversion,” Masih mentioned.
A resident of Bhatti Dhulwan Housing Colony in Sheikhupura District, Masih mentioned his son had taken a contract to gather wastepaper from the mill six months in the past.
Napolean Qayyum of Christian authorized group HARDS Pakistan mentioned his group helped the household in reserving Iftikhar in an tried homicide case.
“We’re standing with the household of their pursuit for justice for his or her son, who was falsely focused with a blasphemy accusation and practically misplaced his life,” Qayyum informed Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “The accused have to be punished in accordance with the regulation, and the police should additionally guarantee safety of the sufferer’s household.”
Blasphemy is an incendiary cost for a lot of in Pakistan, with unsubstantiated accusations inciting public outrage that may result in lynchings. Nazeer Masih Gill, a Christian attacked in Could 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 a number of church buildings and houses after two brothers have been falsely accused of writing blasphemous content material and desecrating the Quran.
Pakistan has additionally witnessed a pointy enhance within the prosecution of “on-line blasphemy” circumstances within the final two years, with personal vigilante teams bringing fees towards a whole lot of younger people, together with Christians for allegedly committing blasphemy.
Expressing alarm over a rise in false blasphemy accusations in Pakistan, the U.N. Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on Nov. 7 urged repeal or amending of the nation’s extensively condemned blasphemy legal guidelines.
The committee famous that false blasphemy accusations led to Islamist mob violence and really helpful amending the legal guidelines in accordance with necessities of the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In its concluding observations of the committee’s second periodic report on Pakistan, it said concern over sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carry extreme penalties, together with the demise penalty, and have a disproportionate influence on spiritual minorities.
“It’s also involved in regards to the rising variety of individuals incarcerated underneath blasphemy fees, the excessive variety of blasphemy circumstances based mostly on false accusations, violence towards these accused of blasphemy, fostering vigilante justice, and allegations of entrapment of individuals, specifically younger individuals, on accusations of on-line blasphemy underneath cybercrime legal guidelines,” the committee said.
Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doorways’ 2025 World Watch Listing of essentially the most tough locations to be a Christian.
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