Faisalabad, two Christians imprisoned for blasphemy released

(December 17, 2009) Gulsher Masih and his daughter Sandal, from a village near Faisalabad, indicted and arrested on charges of blasphemy against Islam in October last year, were released on December 14. Khalil Tahir, Gulsher and Sandal’s lawyer, confirmed the ruling of the court in Faisalabad to AsiaNews. The two Christians were accused of blasphemy under Article 295 paragraph B of the Pakistan Penal Code October 9, 2008. They were charged with having torn some pages from the Koran in the village of Tehsil Chak Jhumra, located in the district of Faisalabad. This had provoked a revolt of an angry mob in the mosques of the village. The crowd said to have thrown stones at the walls of the Gulsher house and hit doors and windows with sticks. They had also hurled rocks at an adjacent Protestant church. After months of suffering, the two Christians were declared innocent: the judge Raja Mohammad Ghazanfer dropped all charges and ordered their immediate release. Khalil Tahir, a Christian MP and lawyer, explained that "although it is very difficult to defend Christians accused of blasphemy in Pakistan, thank God I was able to successfully demonstrate their extraneousness to the facts. All charges against them were groundless, because based on personal disagreements. " There have been at least 33 extra-judicial killings, committed by individuals or angry crowds. Last on this sad list is Fanish, who died last September, for whom Christians are still waiting for justice.