On August 29, police in Pakistan arrested a Christian convert from Hinduism and his Hindu co-worker for allegedly burning a Qur’an and a chart of Qur’anic verses.
The Christian’s family and attorney said, however, that Islamist extremist groups have falsely accused the two men in response to an increasing number of Hindus converting to Christianity in southern Punjab Province.
Arrested
Police arrested school custodians Javed Masih, a Christian, and Anand Lal, a Hindu, hours after Syed Abdul Ghafoor Shah, senior headmaster of the Government Excellence High School in Satellite Town, filed a First Information Report (FIR) about charred Qur’anic verses at the institution. The FIR did not mention Masih and Lal, but police picked them up on the basis of a later supplementary statement by Shah.
Masih’s wife said that soon after the arrests, a Muslim mob – led by leaders of two separate extremist groups – gathered near their house. The leaders made inflammatory speeches, calling on the mob to burn down the house and kill the ‘blasphemer’s children’.
‘The Hindu community is often targeted by Muslim groups and our girls are forcibly taken and converted to Islam, so the community has a natural hatred for Islam’, said Masih’s wife.
