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Pakistan: another Christian woman and her disabled husband remain jailed for blasphemy and await execution

May 14, 2019 9:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

“Following the joyous news of Christian Asia Bibi’s release from jail,” there is another worrying case: “the plight of a Christian Pakistani couple who have also been facing execution in a Pakistan prison for five years.”

The couple, Shagufta Kousar and Shafqat Masih,  stated that “the motive behind the allegations” of blasphemy against them was that their accusers “wanted revenge after a minor quarrel that took place between their children and their neighbours 6 months prior.”  Accusations of blasphemy against Christians are routine and are taken on the word of Muslims who often lie as revenge during a dispute. Their word being automatically taken as truth shows the inferior status of Christians in Pakistan.

False accusations of blasphemy are merely a means to subjugate and persecute Christians. Fake evidence is also sometimes planted against Christians. For example, a village cleric planted pages of the Quran among burnt pages in the bag of a Christian girl and then pinned the blamed the girl.  She is now being held in prison for blasphemy amid threats of violent mobs trying to kill her. The clerics own act of desecrating the Quran but setting up the young girl caused 600 Christians to flee for their lives to escaped enraged Muslims. As for rest of the girl’s family; they will never be able to return to their home village and will remain in hiding indefinitely.

Shafqat Misih is currently paralysed from the waist down following an accident in 2004 when he fractured his spine and is also suffering from depression. Moreover painful sores that he has developed since his incarceration are causing a rapid decline in his health which could lead to a premature death.

After Asia Bibi’s blasphemy death sentence was overturned, Pakistani Christians feared even greater persecution and more violence against them. The case of Bibi became high profile in the media with over 400-thousand people globally signing a petition for her to be released, but let us not forget the countless other Christians in Pakistan who are rotting away in cloistered Pakistani jail cells under harsh conditions.

“Pakistan’s other woman blasphemy victim and her disabled husband still await an appeal against their blasphemy conviction”, by Wilson Chowdhry, British Pakistani Christians, May 12, 2019:

Following the joyous news of Christian Asia Bibi’s release from jail in the early hours of Wednesday 8th May, we highlight the plight of a Christian Pakistani couple who have also been facing execution in a Pakistan prison for five years.

Please sign our petition (click here)

Shagufta Kousar and Shafqat Masih were sentenced to death on 4th April 2014 following a court trial where they were accused of sending blasphemous text under Islamic law to a Muslim man. Now Shagufta is imprisoned at Multan Jail and Shafqat is 150 miles away at Faisalabad District Jail both have have not seen each other since their incarceration and are exhibiting signs of severe depression.

The couple, believed to be in their late 30’s, hail from the city of Gojra from the Punjab province. They led a simple life and were living with their four young children in a church compound. Shagufta was employed as a cleaner and servant at the local church school.

On 18th July 2013, Muhammad Hussain, a Muslim, complained to his Mosque clerics about a blasphemous text that he had allegedly received on his phone whilst praying and whilst seeking legal advice, he claimed to have received more.

Despite Shagufta and Shafqat being illiterate and unabke to text in English or having an understanding of alphanumeric symbols, local police registered a blasphemy case following the complaint of a cleric. This resulted in the couple being arrested on 21st July 2019 under charges of both “insulting the Koran” and “insulting the Prophet.”

The police had obtained confessions from Shafqat which both defendants claim was given under duress. Shafqat has stated to his previous lawyer fighting his case at Toba Tek Singh District Court “To save my wife, I confessed,”

The couple have appealed the sentence at district court level on the grounds that the witnesses produced by the prosecution during the trial were related to the complainant and were therefore inimical towards the couple. The appeal stated: ‘Their statements require independent corroboration, which is lacking in this case.”

Furthermore, evidence exists that Judge Mian Amir Habib, who sentenced the couple to capital punishment, was intimidated by hardline lawyers and religious leaders in the community.

Shagufta, a caretaker at St John Girls High School, Gojra said that her National Identity Card was stolen by a friend of Mr. Hussain who had used it to purchase a SIM card in her name that was then used to send the text messages which the prosecution denies.

Both Shagufta and Shafqat are arguing against their conviction on the basis that there is no evidence that they purchased the SIM involved and adding that as they are both illiterate, could not have possible sent the messages which were written in English.

The couple have also stated that the motive behind the allegations made by Mr. Hussain was that he wanted revenge after a minor quarrel that took place between their children and their neighbours 6 months prior……

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Filed Under: blasphemy, Featured, Muslim persecution of Christians, Pakistan, Sharia Tagged With: Aasia Bibi, Shafqat Masih, Shagufta Kousar


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Comments

  1. Mirta says

    May 14, 2019 at 9:13 am

    Every day there is an attack to the Christian Communities around the world. It’s time to react before it is too late…

    • Tom says

      May 16, 2019 at 1:02 pm

      Most third world countries rely heavily on western financial aid. We must tie that aid directly to the protection of minority communities in those countries such as the Jewish or Christian communities.

      No protection ……. No western money …. period !!!!

  2. John Allan says

    May 14, 2019 at 9:33 am

    ‘This resulted in the couple being arrested on 21st July 2019 …’

    Given the advance knowledge they now have, they should be able to evade arrest.

    • CogitoErgoSum says

      May 14, 2019 at 11:14 am

      Yes, I noticed that. It appears as if these people were arrested for a crime they are going to commit in the future similar to the sci-fi movie, “Minority Report.” But the article says their “neighbor” made a complaint against them on 18th July, 2013 so the correct date of arrest must be 21st July, 2013. This couple has been in jail almost 6 years. It’s a travesty of justice and every bit as outrageous as what was done to Asia Bibi. The blasphemy law in Pakistan should be struck down but it stands in damnation of the country and of Islam.

      • peter says

        May 14, 2019 at 9:29 pm

        Do you know in Islam you can be hanged for having a bad thought . .There are incidences of nine year old girls being hanged in Iran because of having a bad thought .Where are the left wing liberals fighting for freedom of conscience . God save the world from Islam !

  3. mortimer says

    May 14, 2019 at 9:45 am

    Westerners don’t realize that when Islamic blasphemy law is imposed in the West, this same scenario will repeat until there are no no-Muslims left. Everyone will live in constant fear of false accusation.

    • mummymovie says

      May 14, 2019 at 12:17 pm

      Absolutely.

      It is that fear that allows islam to thrive so robustly and spread so quickly. These kinds of environments where you could have the finger pointed at you anytime are like the sugar that feeds cancer cells and allows them to grow, with islam as the seed and fear being the catalyst that germinates them.

      As virtue signaling politicians pander to the hard-left, “oppressed-vs.-oppressor” crowd and enacts “hate crimes” legislation, which is now going into effect across the west, you actually already have the same type of scenario playing out here with accusations of “racism” for all kinds of perceived offenses and violations thereof, all the way down to getting one’s chocolate stuck in the peanut butter.

      Sharia blasphemy law is already being written into policy this way, through these types of conduits; MB and other islamist strategists have already figured this out, as evidenced by Ill-han Omar’s recent masterful exercise in deception, impressively wielding the sword of taqiyaa by using her own anti-semitism to slip in a house condemnation of “islamophobia”, thus getting the ball rolling and paving the way for additional future legislation of specific “hate crimes” legislation that will give islam, muslims and jihadists in America protected and untouchable status. You think she conceived of that whole plan on her own? Fat chance.

      Pandora’s box has indeed been opened here in the U.S., and the virtue-signaling Dhimmicrat politicians and cathartic pseudo revolutionaries are lapping it right up, so expect to see more of this, for sure.

  4. Benedict says

    May 14, 2019 at 9:54 am

    Crucified again:
    https://youtu.be/ytdMUddGe-U

  5. Walter Sieruk says

    May 14, 2019 at 10:53 am

    This recent news report is yet further proof that the only real reason that Muslim nations, as Pakistan, have “blasphemy laws” enacted is because Islam, with its many falsehoods, is such a weak and fragile religion that it can stand up to or hold up to criticism, at all. No matter how very mild those criticisms might be.

  6. mummymovie says

    May 14, 2019 at 11:53 am

    Sadly, they will likely be served up as the “sacrificial lamb” to appease and satiate the bloodlust of the hundreds of thousands of rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth, fundamentalist Pakistani muslims, after letting Asia Bibi slip away from the long-reaching tentacles of sharia law in Pakistan, ever eager to see innocent (accused) people tortured and/or killed to defend their “holy” book/prophet/god.

    You knew some heads would have to roll for that one.

    Typical of the disgustingly primitive norms & (anti-)social behavior that is pervasive anywhere islam spreads.

    • Gail Cox says

      May 14, 2019 at 4:45 pm

      This couple were jailed six years ago, the dates are wrong. So it is not in retaliation to the release of Asia Bibi.

      • gravenimage says

        May 14, 2019 at 9:35 pm

        True–there are many Christians being persecuted in Pakistan.

      • mummymovie says

        May 14, 2019 at 10:01 pm

        No, you’re right, their imprisonment does not amount to retaliation, but extraneous or future punishment(s) they may potentially find themselves subject to by a judge at some point certainly could be:

        Thats what I was getting at.

        Thanks anyway.

  7. Ole Pederson says

    May 14, 2019 at 5:47 pm

    Pakistan should be struck off the list of civilized countries.

    • Watto35 says

      May 16, 2019 at 5:55 am

      Has it ever been on a list of civilized countries?

  8. gravenimage says

    May 14, 2019 at 6:10 pm

    Pakistan: another Christian woman and her disabled husband remain jailed for blasphemy and await execution
    ………………………..

    We can–and should–celebrate the escape of Asia Bibi and her family from this barbaric insanity, but they are not the only victims.

    That Shagufta Kousar and Shafqat Masih are *illiterate* and yet are charged with having sent “blasphemous” texts shows that these pious Muslims don’t care if these accusations sound even vaguely plausible.

    • CRUSADER says

      May 15, 2019 at 6:04 am

      Mohamhead himself was ILLITERATE,
      yet he has been credited with spreading BLASPHEMOUS
      texts which he received as “revelation” and was instructed
      to recite them….

      Most pious Muslims (if not all of them) certainly care about that!

  9. Max says

    May 14, 2019 at 7:01 pm

    Pakistan is a failed state with nuclear arms. I have no doubt that they will eventually attack India, given that Muslims consider that living is hell but dying is bliss.

  10. Mockingjay says

    May 14, 2019 at 7:54 pm

    “The Christian woman and her disabled husband…”

    Good God – these poor, poor, poor, people…

    They have about as many rights and hope of justice as the Jews had in nazi Germany.

    Please – , let somebody PLEASE help them.

  11. CRUSADER says

    May 15, 2019 at 2:59 am

    Marriage — Muslim style!

    Tawhidi discusses Mo’s “wife” Aisha with Tommy Robinson….

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