Blasfemianklaget mann (73) død etter mobb-angrep

Brevet under er sendt fra Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). Claas er NMS sin partner i landet og jobber for å gi juridisk bistand til blant annet blasfemianklagde kristne i landet.

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Dear Friends and colleagues,

The Sargodha mob attack victim 73-year-old Pakistani Christian Lazar (Nazir) Gill passed away in the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Rawalpindi in Punjab Province in Pakistan on 3rd June 2024, just over a week after an extremist mob mercilessly tortured him following an accusation of blasphemy. He passed away in the early hours of 3 June due to multiple organ failure and was swiftly buried in his hometown of Sargodha under the supervision of police.

On 25 May 2024 Lazar (Nazir) Gill was accused of burning the pages of the Holy Quran, this accusation by his Muslim neighbours, triggered a mob who set his shoe factory on fire and beat him with sticks, bricks, and stone which caused him serious injuries. He was rescued after three hours of tussle between the police and the violent mob. After heavy tear gas shelling police were able to retrieve him from the mob. He was taken to a local Sargodha hospital but later shifted to CMH Hospital Rawalpindi.

On 29th May 2024, CLAAS and other civil society organizations held a press conference and a protest demanding the Punjab government drop all charges against Lazar Gill and compensate him for the loss of his property.

His demise raises serious concerns regarding the impartiality of the local city administration. According to the FIR (First information report), a call was made to the police at 7:15 am, the police did not respond till 8:30 am by then the mob had already set his factory on fire and Lazar Masih was soaked in blood and was unconscious. When police took him in their custody by 10 am he was already half dead. Maliciously, the administration shifted him to another city to keep his critical condition discreet till everything calmed down. After the incident, the DPO (district police officer) refrained from giving any information about the wounded Lazar Gill. His family members were kept in police custody to stop them from taking any legal action. The same tactics were used after the twin bomb blast in Youhannabad churches in 2015 and last year in the Jaranwala mob attack. To intimidate the Christian victims from pursuing any legal action many were forcibly detained and kept in arbitrary detentions.

False accusations of blasphemy continue to be on the rise in Pakistan, leading to targeted mob attacks on Christian settlements; desecration of places of worship, and setting our businesses and houses on fire is becoming normality.

Unfortunately, in Pakistan when it comes to blasphemy accusations anyone is free to act as a prosecutor, judge, and executor. We have repeatedly witnessed the same pattern, the crowds are antagonized by religious sentiments to settle personal scores and dispense mob justice.

In 2023 alone 14 blasphemy cases were registered against Christian men, women, and children, the youngest was 13-year-old Simon.

The situation has now reached beyond the application of laws for justice to where crowds and police are repeatedly setting precedents for vigilante street justice, which violates the Constitution and the Pakistan Penal Code. Failure of law enforcement agencies in such incidents indicates that either the state is complacent to the forces using fear and violence against religious minorities or shows its inability to handle such situations.

These repeated incidents of mob attacks on Christian communities speak volumes of the vulnerabilities of religious minorities and the infringement of their religious freedom in Pakistan.

I am writing to you to ask for your support in holding Pakistan accountable for the violation of religious freedom. As a party to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and treaty bodies such as ICCPR, which it ratified in 2010, Pakistan has certain obligations to uphold the right to freedom of religion or belief and give effect to the rights enshrined by these treaties.

Please do write to the concerned Pakistan government representative demanding the government to conduct an impartial investigation of the accounts leading to mob violence in Sargodha and the lynching of Lazar (Nazir) Gill and make these investigation report public to uphold transparency.