From BosNewsLife, with thanks to Nicolei:
LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife/ANS) -- Another Christian has died in Pakistan as a result of severe torture at the hands of the police, a Christian human rights group said Monday, September 6. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said that Nasir Masih, 26, was arrested on "false charges of theft" on August 16, and died three days later after sustaining 20 injuries. It was the third murder of a Pakistani Christian this year, and the second carried out by police, CSW claimed.His father, Mukhtar Masih, said the troubles began when Nasir was taken from his home in Baldia, Siekhupura, 45 kilometres (apr. 28 miles) from Lahore, by a group of Muslims, CSW reported. "A few hours later his family was informed by the police that he had been arrested and charged with theft. The accusation had been made by one of the group which took Nasir from his home." said CSW, a human rights charity working on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs.
"This is a conspiracy based on religious enmity to kill my son," Mukhtar Masih reportedly told the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. "My son cannot have been involved in any theft."
A case has been registered against ten people, including six policemen, for allegedly torturing Nasir Masih to death, during his detention on the orders of the District Police Officer Shahid Iqbal. No arrests have yet been made. "I will knock on every door to get justice for my son," CSW qouted Mukhtar Masih as saying.
POLICE BEATINGS
“Nasir's murder,” said a CSW spokesperson “follows the deaths in May this year of Samuel Masih and Javed Anjum. Samuel Masih, charged under the blasphemy law, was beaten by a police officer while he lay in a hospital suffering from tuberculosis. Javed Anjum was tortured to death by Muslims from a madrassah (Islamic school).
One waits for the World Council of Churches, the Vatican, and of course the Presbyterians who recently denounced "apartheid" in Israel to take note of these and other killings, in the southern and western Sudan, in the southern Philippines, in the Moluccas, in northern Nigeria, in Egypt (those pesky Copts who keep managing to get in the news each time one is killed or tortured), and so on and so predictably forth.
One waits -- but not with bated breath.
Well said, Hugh.
The apalling atrocity that is Pakistan's blashphemy law has been extensively detailed and known around for quite a while now but nothing of note has been saiid or done about it.
This draconian law overturns two cornerstones in jurisprudence :
1. An accused maybe considered innocent until proven guilty
2. burden of proof rests with the accuser.
These basic principles of fairplay and natural justice we in the west are used to stand starkly absent in the allegedly 'merciful' allah's 'land of the pure' (the literal translation of Pakistan's name).
Scores of christians, Hindus and of late,. Ahmediyas (a minority muslim sect) have been tortured and murdered under state supervision under the aegis of this law.
Not content with completely and unambigously trampling oiver minority rights in this shameless manner, Pakistan has gone all out to express 'concern and sympathy' for the plight of muslims across the border in neighbouring India - a secular, democratic and pluralistic nation. It's a lie, a sham, a hoax perpetrated on India's muslims that some have been led astray by pakistan's rhetoric and activerly seek to separate from india and join Pakistan (like in Kashmir valley to the north). A fifith column inside India's largest minority, but mericfully, the vast majority of India's muslims remain indifferent to pakistan;s machinations, for now.
And to extend voletti's comment. We hear the complaint of concern about Muslim rights throughout the world as if no one else has rights. Of course they don't, for in the eyes of Muslims, non-Muslims are "less" and fit to be nothing more than slaves or dhimmis. They mew and complain until strong enough to strike the knife's blow. Shameless and contemptuous is not strong enough to describe these vile people.
Hey, we're talking about Naseem's beloved nuclear-armed homeland here (whose leading scientist happily sold the technology to such other wonderful countries as North Korea, among others, where millions of North Koreans starved to death as Dear Leader diverted what little wealth the country had to paying for the nuke program)!
A little history lesson here: Pakistan was carved out of a newly independent India because that seemed to be the best way to resolve hostilities between Hindus and Muslims living on the subcontinent. This required a massive population transfer, far beyond what occurred in Israel/Palestine, where about 500,000 "Palestinians" (which included Arabs who had lived there for as few as two years) left and about 750,000 Jews immigrated from Muslim countries they had inhabited for anything up to two milenia (Iraq) and including Pakistan.
And, by the way Naseem -- up until the first European Jews started to make aliya in the late 1800s, four of the largest urban areas in "Palestine" -- Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Beersheba -- were predominantly middle eastern Jews. The rest of Some day the big lie that the Arab countries perpetrated about Palestine will be exposed for the incredible piece of historical revisionism that it is. They could have cared less about the displacement of Arabs had they been Christian, especially if the displacers were Muslim -- the Muslims have displaced plenty of non-Muslims throughout the Middle East and North Africa, but man oh man -- to see even one Muslim displaced by a Jew! That's a whole different story, eh?