Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lahore (Agenzia Fides) - The episode of the Afghan woman brutally lynched for blasphemy on March 19, 2015 by an angry mob of Muslims in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, is "a warning and a lesson to Pakistan", says to Fides Christian lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill.
The woman, 27, was accused of burning a copy of the Koran: in response she was beaten and tortured to death, then her body was set on fire. On 5 May 2015 Afghan judge Safiullah Mojaddidi sentenced four men for public lynching which took place in Kabul.
"On November 4, 2014, a crowd of about 1,500 Muslims from five villages of Punjab lynched a young Christian couple, Shahzad and Shama (who was pregnant), after accusing them of desecrating pages of the Koran and burned them alive in a brick oven. The couple had three young children. The case is still pending in a Pakistani court and justice has not yet been done. How long will it take?" he remarks. "In Pakistan, investigation is always partial and defective if the issue relates to Christians or to minority communities: from cases of rape, murder, forced marriages and cases of blasphemy" he emphasizes. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 19/05/2015)
