Christ dies as a result of an attack in Pakistan on May 25

A Christian attacked in Pakistan on May 25 died in hospital on Monday, prompting a leading bishop to call for greater protection for religious minorities in the Muslim country.

According to local observers, hundreds of Muslims took part in violent riots in Sargodha, Pakistan’s Punjab province, in May. The incident began with an accusation that a Christian had defaced the Koran, the Muslim holy book, and was followed by an attack in which his shoe factory was burned to the ground.

The deceased was Nazir Gill Masih, a 70-year-old Christian from Sargodha.

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Bishop Samson Shukardin, chairman of the Pakistani Bishops’ Conference, said that unless laws were passed to criminalize fabricated accusations of blasphemy, Christians would never again feel safe in their own country. Christians make up just under two percent of the country’s 236 million inhabitants.

“It is very important that a law be introduced that imposes penalties, including prison sentences, on those who have wrongly accused people of blasphemy,” the bishop told the Catholic aid organization Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are among the most controversial in the world, with critics accusing them of being frequently used to harass and intimidate religious minorities. One oft-cited example is that of Asia Bibbi, an illiterate Catholic who spent nearly a decade on death row after being charged with blasphemy in 2010 and was eventually forced to seek refuge in Canada.

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Shukardin said the government’s alleged inaction had encouraged even more people to use the controversial laws as a weapon against innocent minorities.

A wave of violence against Christians in the Jaranwala district of Punjab in August last year also resulted in no conviction of the attackers.

Hundreds of Muslims rioted because a Christian and his friend had allegedly desecrated a Koran. Christians who had fled their homes to escape the attackers returned to find a scene of destruction that had affected their homes and workplaces.

“After the Jaranwala incident, nothing has been done to ensure justice. This is a disaster. It is not good for the minorities,” the bishop said.

“Unless the government takes serious action and enacts laws to protect minorities, especially Christians, who are the largest minority in Punjab, the situation in terms of misuse of blasphemy laws will only get worse,” he added.

“We are not asking for anything that is against the country of Pakistan. We are only asking for the protection of our lives and the lives of our families,” he said.

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“We must provide justice and security to our minorities and to all those who are mistreated because of their religion or other reasons that are incompatible with human dignity,” Shukardin said.

The 2023 report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom found that the situation regarding religious freedom in Pakistan had continued to deteriorate since last year.

“Religious minorities were subjected to frequent attacks and threats, including accusations of blasphemy, targeted killings, lynchings, mob violence, forced conversions, sexual violence against women and girls, and desecration of places of worship and cemeteries,” the US commission said in a statement.

Shukardin agreed that the persecution was getting worse.

“There are major incidents like the one in Jaranwala in August or the events in Sargodha at the end of May, but there are also many smaller incidents. It is an alarming situation,” the bishop told ACN.

“In general, when you see how many incidents have occurred, you realize that the number of these incidents is increasing day by day,” he added.

He said only foreign pressure could force Pakistan to act.

“There must be pressure from outside – from government to government,” said the Pakistani bishop.