[DAWN] Police tossed in the clinkYez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
dozens of people on Wednesday after a mob beat a Christian couple to death and burned their bodies for allegedly desecrating the Holy Koran.
Local media reported the couple was accused of burning a copy of the Holy Koran and throwing it in a rubbish bin in the province of Punjab on Tuesday. Police said their bodies were set on fire in a brick kiln.
"We have arrested 44 people, it was a local issue incited by the mullah of a local mosque," Jawad Qamar, a regional police chief said. "No particular sectarian group or religious outfit was behind the attack."
Wonder if the holy man was among those jugged?
The incident took place in the town of Kot Radha Kishan, some 60 kilometres of Lahore, and was the latest example of mob violence against minorities accused of blasphemy.
The victims were only identified by their first names, Shama and Shehzad, and were a married couple.
Police 'too slow to act'
Punjab police spokeswoman Nabila Ghazanfar said the couple, like many other poor Christians in the area, worked in a brick kiln owned by a local man who has also been arrested.
He'll be out on bail in no time.
"Three days ago, a co-worker alleged that they had burnt pages of the Holy Koran.
Any special reason for that?
"On Tuesday morning, a mob gathered outside their house, dragged them out, beat and burnt them in the same kiln where they worked," she said.
Islam in action.
A local journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said police were too slow to act to protect the couple.
"Police did not take it seriously. Later they sent five officers to the spot," the journalist said. "The couple was thrashed and burnt in their presence."
The policemen were therefore part of the mob. Betcha they weren't arrested.
Pakistain's brick kiln workers are often subject to harsh practices, with a study by the Bonded Labour Liberation Front Pakistain estimating that 4.5 million are indentured labourers.
Also known as "slaves." You can be polite and call them "serfs."
Three-member committee to investigate killings
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif
...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab...
has constituted a three-member committee to fast track the investigation of the killings and ordered police to beef up security at Christian neighbourhoods in the province, an official from his media office said.
Yeah, they always do that. Lemme know when they abolish serfdom...
Blasphemy charges, even when they go to court, are punishable by death in Pakistain. They are hard to fight because the law does not define clearly what is blasphemous. Presenting the evidence can sometimes itself be considered a fresh infringement.
Catch 22, 23, and 36 through 59.
Blasphemy is a serious offense in Pakistain where those accused are sometimes lynched on the spot.
Howling mobs are a feature of Islam everywhere it takes hold, aren't they?
Rights group demands justice for couple
Pak authorities must bring to justice those responsible for the vicious mob killing of the Christian couple, human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal
liberty...
groups
Yeah, right. Blah blah blah. Check back in six weeks and see if anybody remembers.
"This vicious mob killing is just the latest manifestation of the threat of vigilante violence which anyone can face in Pakistain after a blasphemy accusation -- although religious minorities are disproportionately vulnerable. Those responsible must be brought to justice and the Pak authorities have to ensure at-risk communities are proactively given the protection they need," said David Griffiths,
In Pakistain there's no common nationhood. You're a Sunni Moslem or a Deobandi. Otherwise you're a target. Once all the Christians, Shias, Brelvis, Ismailis, Sikhs, Hindus and such have been killed or forcibly converted the salafists and the Deobandis will start killing each other off.
Christians make up about two per cent of the country's total population and tend to keep a low profile where holy warriors frequently bomb targets they see as heretical, including Christians, Sufi and Shia Moslems.
Well,you know. Islam is threatened in Pakistain.
All of Pakistain's minorities feel that the state fails to protect them, and even tolerates violence against them.
Last month a British man with a history of mental health illness, sentenced to death for blasphemy earlier this year, was shot by a prison guard in his cell.
Also in October, a Pak court upheld the death penalty against a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who is also accused of blasphemy, in a case that drew global headlines after two prominent politicians who tried to help her were assassinated.
And today a cop killed a guy in the stationhouse with an ax for "blasphemy."