Kasur incident: Call for arrest of clerics who incited murder

Society for Secular Pakistan strongly condemns the killings of Shazad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama

KARACHI:

The Society for Secular Pakistan (SfSP) said on Friday it strongly condemns the killings of Shazad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama by a crowd incited by the clerics of three mosques of the villages in Kasur.

“We demand that these clerics should be arrested and punished for inciting village people on religious grounds to kill the kiln worker who had reportedly some dispute with the kiln owner,” SfSP President Dr Syed Haroon Ahmed said in a statement.

Unfortunately this is not the first time that the sacred place of worship was used to entice people to kill with impunity, he said.

While the SfSP stands for freedom of expression, the state should register all mosques and the religious leaders to keep a close check that nobody makes hate speeches from the pulpits, he said, adding, “They should be free to preach their faith but not hatred.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2014.