Mob violence: Evidence recorded in Kot Radha Kishan case
They said the couple had been brutally beaten before they were burnt.
The couple was pulled out from the room, beaten and thrown into the kiln by the villagers. PHOTO: EXPRESS
LAHORE:
An anti-terrorism court on Friday recorded statements of two doctors, Saba Asif and Hamid Bashir, and summoned more witnesses in a case against 106 people accused of burning a Christian couple in a brick kiln.
The doctors told the court that the couple’s remains were so badly burnt, they were unidentifiable. They said the couple had been brutally beaten before they were burnt.
Counsel for the accused submitted an application seeking proceedings in a bigger room. The court reserved its ruling over the application. The ATC had framed charges against the accused in a previous hearing. According to the prosecution Shama, 24 and Shahzad, 28 were burnt alive in a kiln in Chak 59, Kot Radha Kishan, near Kasur where they had been working for over a decade. Police said according to investigation reports, on November 3, when the couple arrived at the kiln for work, the owner asked them to return the money they had borrowed from him. When they said they did not have the money, they were locked up in a room. They said on November 4, a cleric announced through the mosque loudspeaker that he had heard that a Christian woman had desecrated the Quran.
After the announcement, hundreds of villagers gathered at the kiln. They pulled the couple out from the room, beat them and threw them into the kiln.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2015.
An anti-terrorism court on Friday recorded statements of two doctors, Saba Asif and Hamid Bashir, and summoned more witnesses in a case against 106 people accused of burning a Christian couple in a brick kiln.
The doctors told the court that the couple’s remains were so badly burnt, they were unidentifiable. They said the couple had been brutally beaten before they were burnt.
Counsel for the accused submitted an application seeking proceedings in a bigger room. The court reserved its ruling over the application. The ATC had framed charges against the accused in a previous hearing. According to the prosecution Shama, 24 and Shahzad, 28 were burnt alive in a kiln in Chak 59, Kot Radha Kishan, near Kasur where they had been working for over a decade. Police said according to investigation reports, on November 3, when the couple arrived at the kiln for work, the owner asked them to return the money they had borrowed from him. When they said they did not have the money, they were locked up in a room. They said on November 4, a cleric announced through the mosque loudspeaker that he had heard that a Christian woman had desecrated the Quran.
After the announcement, hundreds of villagers gathered at the kiln. They pulled the couple out from the room, beat them and threw them into the kiln.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2015.