by Shafique Khokhar

Yaqoob Masih is accused of burning a book containing verses from the Qur‘an, which he had borrowed from a Muslim spiritual healer. A group of people beat him up and then dragged him to the local the police station. The local Christian community is now living under threat.

Mirpur Khas (AsiaNews) – Yaqoob Masih, a mentally disabled 22-year-old Pakistani Christian from Mirpur Khas (Sindh province), is in prison on blasphemy charges, scheduled to go before a court on 19 June.

The case has raised fear levels among local Christians who are concerned about possible violent reactions from their Muslim neighbours who have already threatened to attack them.

Until last year, Yaqoob Masih, who lost his father, was in the care of a psychiatric hospital in Hyderabad.

Since the treatment was not working, some neighbours told his mother that he might be suffering from some form of witchcraft, suggesting she should take him to Molvi Talib Hussain, a Muslim cleric and spiritual healer. Yaqoob visited Hussain’s “clinic” several times.

On 4 June, the young man asked to borrow a book from the Islamic healer, saying he wanted to read something. Hussain gave him a book and told his friends about Yaqoob’s interest. The latter slammed the healer for giving a book with verses from the Qur‘an to a Christian.

Along with a large group of people, they went to Yaqoob’s home and beat up him and the women of the house, in order to get back the text.

After the beating, Yaqoob said he burnt the book, angering the group who beat up even more before dragging him to the police.

On the same day, Hussain filed a complaint against Yaqoob at the Mehmoodabad police station, accusing him of blasphemy even though no one found any traces of the burnt book, or saw him do it.

As news spread Friday of last week, local Muslims got angry. A group of them came together to attack the Christian community – 25 houses in total – but the police intervened in time to keep them at bay. However, many Christian families fled to avoid repercussions.

"This kind of incidents is increasing every day in the country, undermining the country’s peace,” said Ranjha Masih, a Christian activist. “The state should carefully intervene”, he told AsiaNews, “and take concrete measures to minimise intolerance and disharmony among communities.”

“If Yaqoob Masih is guilty, that is for the court to decide. Other Christians are innocent and their lives must be protected."

• pakistan
• blasphemy
• accusation
• mentally
• disabled