Kasur lynching: Couple’s son recounts harrowing details

Tied to a tractor, Sajjad and Shama were dragged through the area.

LAHORE: With police officials struggling to make any headway in their investigation into the  Kot Radha Kishan lynching tragedy, the slain Christian couple’s six-year-old son on Sunday came forth with a harrowing account of the double murder.

Sajjad Masih and his wife Shama Bibi – brick kiln workers from Chak-59 of Kot Radha Kishan, Kasur – were brutally killed by a mob on November 4 after being accused of committing blasphemy.

“The mob attacked our house… they beat up my parents before tying them to a tractor and dragging them around the neighbourhood,” Sajjad and Shama’s son told Express News after a prayer ceremony was held for his parents.

“My parents were beaten so harshly that they started bleeding,” he said, adding that after dragging his parents around by a tractor, the mob threw them in the brick kiln furnace.

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According to the slain couple’s son, some members of the mob also attacked his younger sister. “They picked my four-year-old sister and threw her on the ground,” he said.

“When I saw the crowd was getting rough with my daughter’s children, I fled away with them from the spot to keep them from harm’s way,” recounted Shama’s father Mukhtar Masih. He said he feared for his and his grandchildren’s life and was forced to change locations for safety reasons.

Mukhtar called for the public execution of his daughter’s murderers and said strict action should be taken against those involved in the lynching.  Setting the record straight, he also said the picture shown by the media as that of Shama’s was in fact her niece’s. “I will soon reveal Shama’s actual picture once I gain access to her belongings, currently in police custody.”

Meanwhile, other relatives of the slain couple and members of the Christian community have expressed distrust in the police investigation into the lynching, accusing officials of distorting facts from ‘day one’.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Human Liberation Foundation Chairman Aslam Sahotra – who claimed he was present both at the scene of the crime and when the FIR was being lodged – said that instead of recording the strength of the mob as 1,000 people as mentioned in Sajjad’s brother’s complaint, police mentioned only 500-600 people in the FIR. “Sheikhupura RPO Abu Bakar Khudabuksh intervened himself and stopped the police officer from mentioning a 1,000-strong mob in the FIR,” he said.

When contacted, RPO Khudabukhsh said the police did not think there were more than 500 people in the mob at the time.

Sajjad’s brother Mukhtar, meanwhile, said that despite assurances by the Sheikhupura RPO and Kasur DPO that the SHO would be suspended and an inquiry would be initiated against the DSP of the area for their inaction, no punishment was ever awarded to the policemen in question.

Both the DPO and RPO denied ever giving any such assurance. Defending the police against allegations of inaction in response to the crime, Kasur DPO Jawad Qamar said: “Since it was the 10th of Muharram, police were spread too thinly across the district.”

On the other hand, DPO Qamar said police had already rounded up 55 suspects, including three imams and the owner of the brick kiln used in the murder. “The other accused left the village overnight and could not be arrested.

Police foil mob attack in Raiwind

Police officials said they foiled a bid by locals in Raiwind on Sunday to torture three Christian men over alleged blasphemy.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Raiwind SHO Muhammad Shaheen said he responded to a call from brick kiln owner Haji Ikram who sought police help against threats by some locals from Ameenpura village.

According to Shaheen, Ikram told him that some of his workers had accused three of his Christian workers of committing blasphemy and had teamed up with residents of the village to take action against them. He said the mob was pressing Ikram into reporting the blasphemy to the police. When Ikram refused, they started threatening him as well.

Shaheen added that when he reached Ikram’s brick kiln, a local prayer leader was urging Ameenpura residents to treat the three Christian workers the same way as the couple in Kot Radha Kishan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2014.