Murder of 14 year old boy Numbs Pakistani Christians

August 23, 2012: A brutal murder, of a shadowy nature, has shaken the Christian community in Pakistan already marked by the experience of a disabled girl imprisoned for blasphemy in Islamabad, 11-year-old Rimsha Masih. On 21 August the police in Faisalabad found the horribly mutilated body of Suneel Masih in an isolated area of the city. The boy, a Christian orphan from the city had disappeared two days earlier.

His body was found two days later in a remote area, in a mutilated condition with some internal organs removed, probably for the black market. His face was disfigured with acid. While a Police Officer confesses to never having seen "such a murder." The Christian community has called for justice, but so far not even an investigation has been initiated.

The Christian community is in shock and demanding justice, perhaps in vain because so far the police have not even opened a formal investigation. Speaking to AsiaNews, Fr. Nisar Barkat, diocesan director of the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Church of Pakistan (NCJP), appealed to the government and law enforcement to bring the perpetrators to justice "as soon as possible." The Christian community, the priest adds, feels insecure and cannot stop thinking about this horrible case. Hindus and Christians "live in fear". The Christian MP of Punjab Joel Aamir Sohotra echoes this fear, saying that "this brutal murder poses a serious reflection on the freedoms enjoyed by minorities, because" we are not just in front of the murder of a Christian boy, but the freedom of all minorities. "

The Christian lawyer Kamal Chughtai confirms that he has never seen "such a thing, with this level of cruelty in my entire life." He strongly condemns this "atrocity" and calls for the immediate arrest of the culprits. And if they are not brought to justice in two days, as promised by the police, all the Christians in the city should take to the streets to demand justice.

Meanwhile , A minority rights activist said on Wednesday that there was a growing support for the release of Rimsha Masih the young Christian girl arrested last week on charges of blasphemy and that he would seek approval to represent her in court. “Support from government officials is overwhelmingly strong. Top clerics in the country are condemning the injustice ” said Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, a central executive committee member of the All Pakistan Minority Alliance (APMA), a national coalition of minority rights groups.

“We were hoping for her release but the [Eid ul-Fitr] holidays delayed it,” he said. Rimsha Masih, variously reported to be between the age of 10 and 16, was confronted by a group of Muslims at her home in Sector G-11, a Christian slum in Islamabad, on the night of August 16 after witnesses said she was found with burned pages of a religious textbook that contained verses from the Qur’an.