Christians Under Attack

Judge Rao Abdel Jabar has agreed to preside over tomorrow’s blasphemy hearing against Martha Bibi Masih in the district capital of Kasur, 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of Lahore, defense lawyer Ezra Shujat said.

He told Compass the trial had been moved from Chunian, near Masih’s home village, because of the sensitive nature of the case.

Police arrested Masih in the early morning hours of January 23 after a violent mob stormed her house in the village of Kot Nanka Singh, the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) reported.

The riot was prompted by claims that Masih made insulting remarks about Islam’s founder, Masih’s husband said in an interview with CLAAS the day of his wife’s arrest. Masih remains behind bars in Kasur’s district jail, while her husband and five children have gone into hiding to avoid a revenge attack, defense lawyer Shujat told Compass.

“They are afraid and worried now,” said Shujat, an activist with the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. “They can’t work anywhere.”

Accusations of blasphemy can be volatile in Pakistan, where Article 295-C of the penal code prescribes death for anyone guilty of defiling Muhammad. Death sentences have always been overturned by higher courts, but at least 23 people suspected of blasphemy have been murdered.

Implying that tempers had not yet cooled in Masih’s hometown, police requested her case be transferred to Kasur to prevent a “law and order situation,” daily newspaper Dawn reported on February 8.

In a February 4 article, an officer told Reuters that police had immediately shifted Masih to Kasur because people in her area were “very furious.”

Masih’s husband said that accusations against his wife were false and stemmed from a quarrel with a Muslim neighbor. In a January 23 interview with CLAAS, Boota Masih explained how his wife had gone to a local mosque construction site on January 22 to retrieve materials that she had rented out to the builders.

“She requested the people present to go inside [the mosque] and get bamboo [sticks] and logs out for her,” Boota Masih said. “But nobody helped her.”

As a Christian, she could not enter the mosque, her defense lawyer said.

When Martha Masih asked a nearby shopkeeper to help her retrieve the materials, the woman refused, and the two exchanged harsh words, Boota Masih told CLAAS.

The shopkeeper later told her husband, Muhammad Ramzan, that Martha Masih had cursed Islam’s prophet during their argument. Ramzan spread word among his neighbors that the Christian woman had committed blasphemy and gathered a mob to march on Masih’s home at 10 p.m.

“We requested our neighbor, Muhammad Rashid Mughal, to hide us in his home, which he allowed,” Boota Masih said. The mob searched Masih’s home for two hours but dispersed after failing to find the alleged blasphemer.

Absentee Complainant

When Martha Masih eventually left her neighbor’s home in the early morning hours of January 23, police arrested her and took her to the nearby city of Changa Manga.

Ramzan’s friend, Muhammad Dilbar, had lodged an FIR (First Information Report) against her with local police, accusing her under article 295-C.

“It’s important to note that the complainant was not actually at the scene of the event,” Shujat told Compass. According to the defense lawyer, the district Superintendent of Police (SP) rubber-stamped the FIR without personally investigating the case.

“He just filled out the papers because [officially] it is only the SP who can investigate a [blasphemy] case,” Shujat said. “But I believe he has not investigated.”

Local police reportedly weighed in on the investigation, telling Pakistani papers that the Christian was guilty of blasphemy the week after her arrest.

“We can’t allow people to desecrate the name of the Holy Prophet. The complaint lodged against her was true,” Changa Manga Station House Officer Reza Shah told Dawn on February 2.

Officers at Changa Manga police station, none of whom spoke English, were unable to verify the accuracy of this statement for Compass.

In a February 9 letter to the editor posted at online news site Paktribune, one Lahore resident called on the Supreme Court to cancel the “appalling case against Martha Bibi.”

“Even the most dim-witted Christian could not dare dream of even approaching anything remotely resembling blasphemy in Pakistan unless it was a novel way to commit suicide,” wrote Professor Wasif M. Khan.

Last month a senior Pakistani official, speaking in Paris about the condition of religious minorities in Pakistan, said the government hoped to amend the blasphemy laws.

“Inshallah [God willing], after the election” later this year, Sen. Mushahid Hussain Sayed said when questioned if Islamabad would change the law, Reuters reported.

Government officials have made similar statements. Most recently, State Minister Tariq Azim told minorities in December that they would “hear the ‘good news’ of amendments to the blasphemy law this Christmas,” the Daily Times reported.

Concrete changes have yet to materialize.