A young Christian couple was burned alive in a brick kiln in the Punjab province for allegedly burning pages of the Qu’ran.
The couple had three children and the mother was pregnant with her fourth child.
“They were beaten up and burned alive,” Shabhaz Masih, elder brother of Shahzad Masih, who perished along with his wife Shama Bibi, told The Tablet.
Shahzad, 28, was the youngest of the six brothers belonging to a family who had been working in a brick kiln in a village 25km from the district headquarters of Kasur. The family were members of the Church of Pakistan, which is part of the Anglican Communion, the World Methodist Council and the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
Sardar Mushtaq Gill, a Christian human rights lawyer, told The Tablet that Shama Bibi was burning rubbish on the evening of 3 November when the manager of the brick kiln claimed to have spotted torn Qu’ranic pages and alerted Muslim leaders.
An announcement of a desecration of the Qu’ran was made over loudspeakers in neighbouring villages, Mr Gill said. The couple wanted to flee but the owner of the kiln prevented them.
A mob of more than 1,000 people reached the village in tractor trolleys and motorbikes early on Tuesday morning.
“The mob pulled out the couple from the house after breaking its roof, tortured them, broke their legs and set them on fire,” Mr Gill said.
Though police have arrested 37 people in connection with the crime, Mr Gill said that police claims that the couple was dead before being burned was not true. “They were burned alive,” he pointed out.
“A mob attacked a Christian couple after accusing them of desecration of the Holy Qu’ran and later burned their bodies at a brick kiln where they worked,” local police told the news agency AFP.
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