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25585
“Pakistani Christian Couple Still Alive When Thrown Into Kiln - Coroner‏”
by World Watch Monitor   
December 24th, 2014

A lawyer for the state of Punjab, Pakistan has described the murder of a Christian couple by a mob of at least 500 to 600 as "brutal and barbaric". The post-mortem report on their twin deaths (first revealed in the Supreme Court on Dec 15) showed that both husband and wife were still alive when they were thrown into the brick kiln where they both worked, and that they burnt to death.

Shazad Masih and his wife Shama Bibi, who was five months pregnant, were tortured by an enraged mob over a false accusation of burning pages of the Qur’an; they were then burned to death on November 4. They were bonded labourers at the brick kiln, which meant that they were unable to leave their home after trouble first erupted, due to heavy debt.

After their deaths, the police arrested more than 50 people and charged them under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act: ("Terrorism" means "the use or threat of action where … … The use or threat is designed to coerce and intimidate or overawe the Government or the public or a section of the public or community or sect or create a sense of fear or insecurity in society.")

Eleven of them on Wed 17th Dec applied for bail, but the prosecutor said they did not deserve any leniency, and Anti-Terrorism Court judge Haroon Latif Khan refused them all. They were named as Muhammad Akram, Abdul Latif, Allah Rakha, Nisar Akhtar, Muhammad Hanif, Tajamul Hussain, Amanat Ali, Usman Sindhu, Arsalan Attique, Haris Bashir and Waqas Bashir.

The last four were represented by Supreme Court lawyer Chaudhry Muhammad Arif Sindhu and Dr. Rana Muhammad Shamim (a retired justice of Sindh High Court and ex-Advocate-General and Prosecutor-General of Sindh province), who argued that the last two were only eyewitnesses.

Lawyer Sindhu told World Watch Monitor that the police had arrested Haris Bashir and his brother Usman Bashir because they were eyewitnesses to the negligence of the police, which had allowed the couple to die at the hands of the mob. The lawyer said that Haris Bashir, a university student, had informed the police as a law-abiding citizen.

"Usman Bashir, a Lahore High Court lawyer, went to the police station after Haris called him but the police also arrested him and named him in the case."

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