LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A 49-year-old blind Christian in Pakistan has been arrested and charged with blasphemy, punishable by death, after a Muslim accused him of insulting Islam’s prophet, his mother said.
Martha Yousaf, the nearly 80-year-old mother of Nadeem Masih, said that Waqas Mazhar and other Muslims often harassed her son, sometimes extorting money from him and other times throwing water on him or calling him names.
Mazhar works in the Model Town Park in Lahore as a parking contractor, where Masih also earned a meager income providing a weighing scale for petty merchants.
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“Sometimes kindhearted visitors would also give him more money due to his disability, but the park’s Muslim workers used to steal it from his pocket,” said Yousaf, a Catholic resident of Chak No. 9/4L village in Okara District, Punjab Province. “Some, including Mazhar, had also taken loans of various amounts from him but refused to return the money despite his repeated requests.”
When Masih went to work on Aug. 21, Mazhar and the others refused to let him set up his makeshift stall, Yousaf said.
“When Masih protested against their harassment, Mazhar and another man manhandled him and forced him to sit on a motorcycle and took him to the Model Town Police Station,” she said.
There they accused him of blasphemy and handed him to police, who booked him under Section 295-C of the harsh laws, which calls for the death sentence for insulting Muhammad.
“When I met my son for the first time in jail after his arrest, he cried bitterly as he told me how the police had mercilessly beaten him and forced him to admit to the false charge,” Yousaf told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
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The police’s treatment of her son has been cruel from the onset, she said.
“Every time I meet him, my heart bleeds and cries when he tells me how badly he is being treated, especially when he’s taken for court appearances,” she said. “They push him around despite knowing that he is completely blind and also has an iron rod in his right leg.”
Pleading for her son’s release from a false charge, Yousaf said she had already lost one son some years ago, leaving only Masih and her three daughters to provide for the family.
“We are very poor people and barely manage to meet both ends. Masih’s father has passed away, and now one of my daughters, who is divorced and is living with me, works in people’s homes to help us both sustain,” she said, sobbing. “Every day I pray to God to deliver my son from this false accusation and bring him back to me.”
Despite his disability and financial constraints, Masih completed his graduation but was unable to find a job as there were hardly any employment opportunities in Pakistan for people with disabilities, she said.
Masih’s attorney, Javed Sahotra, said there were major discrepancies in the First Information Report (FIR) that would enable him to get bail for the Christian. The complainant in the case, Police Sub-Inspector Muhammad Ayub, claimed he and his team were patrolling the park at 11 p.m. when they were informed about the alleged blasphemy.
“However, the fact is that the park’s gates close at 9 p.m., and no one is allowed inside after that,” Sahotra told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Moreover, Masih had made a call on the police helpline at 6 a.m. to inform them about his mistreatment by the parking contractor and others but received no help.”
