On November 4, 2014, hundreds of people gathered together with the purpose and goal of killing a working class couple who were accused of blasphemy. On that day, they succeeded.
Christian couple Shama and Shehzad Masih were attacked, beaten, and thrown into a furnace by these hundreds of people. They did not receive a fair trial or a chance to defend themselves, but were simply killed as the result of an accusation and an angry group of people.
The Masihs were parents of three, in their 20s, and one of the children actually witnessed the tragic events that took place. Shama was also pregnant with another child at the time that she was murdered.
The dispute arose from the couple taking PKR 100,000 from the kiln’s contractor, under Peshgi. Pegshi is how many laborers take a loan from their employer, which keeps them in a state of repayment, or a form of bonded labor.
The kiln’s contractor brought the couple in for questioning and locked them inside, which is how they were ultimately killed. The contractor told the public that Shama had burned pages of the Quran, when in reality, they had burnt some documents that belonged to Shehzad’s father, who had passed soon before.
The Quran, which many Pakistanis follow as their holy text, does not condone punishment in the form of murder for blasphemy. The couple’s murder case ended with 103 people being charged with the murder and five given the death penalty.
But this was not the only murder in the name of religion.
Another murder took place on November 4, 2020, where the security guard of a bank shot the manager in Quaidabad, Pakistan. The security guard shouted that he killed a blasphemer who had disrespected the prophet. A crowd followed and supported this murder. Many religious leaders joined and shouted from the rooftop of the police station in support of this murder.
Malik Imran Hanif, the bank manager, was transported to the hospital, but died.
Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, Special Representative to Prime Minister on Religious Harmony, tweeted, “…the real blasphemer is the one who kills a Muslim in the name of the holy prophet. The killer of Quaidabad will, InshaAllah, be punished.”
The religious leader is working with the government actively to prevent the misuse of religious teachings to settle personal and political disputes.
The police are investigating the incident. The security guard and the manager at the bank had been in conflict for awhile and the guard fired a few months prior. Upon rehire, Hanif and the guard argued once again, and the police are concluding that the murder took place as the result of his own personal grievances.
Both of these cases took place as the murderers themselves claimed religious pretexts, when in reality it was the result of personal disputes.