Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Hyderabad (Agenzia Fides) - A Christian worker, Shera Masih, 26, was killed by a Muslim businessman, in the city of Kot Ghulam Muhammad, near Hyderabad, in the province of Sindh. The man was killed in a brutal manner, for reasons that remain unclear: he was tied to a car and dragged, then shot dead. His body was abandoned, and only 4 hours after his death the police arrived.
As sources of Fides report, Faisal Kachhelo, the alleged businessman murderer, is a large landowner who has many workers under him, including Hindu and Christian men who often suffer discrimination and humiliation. Now, after the crime, parliamentarians, politicians, the business man’s friends are trying to cover up the case and save him. Shera Masih's parents have now filed a complaint against the employer but the police arrested one of his guards, an innocent man, in his place. The boy's relatives and other Christians protested by blocking a main road for several hours, demanding justice and the arrest of the real killer.
Fides sources underline that the episode is an indicator of the condition of religious minorities, Christians and Hindus in Sindh. In recent days, two Christians, Amil and Jawed, were arrested by the police in Karachi, the capital of Sindh and beaten and accused of stealing from their employer, a Muslim. The accusation, the two report, started when they refused to convert to Islam. Only the intervention of the Christian MP Saleem Khursheed Khokhar in their favor allowed the release. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 10/7/2012)
