Tag: Shahzad Masih

Pakistani top court rejects review, setting Christian woman Asia Bibi free

January 29, 2019 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Pakistan, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Asia Bibi with Punjab Governor, Salmaan Taseer, who was assassinated for supporting her case. (Photo: Office of the Governor of Punjab)

After nine years in prison for blasphemy, the Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi is free to go after the Supreme Court today, 29 January, upheld her acquittal from the death penalty conviction for blasphemy. The panel considering a review of last year’s verdict by the Supreme Court – which had acquitted her based . . . Read More

‘No grounds for review of Supreme Court ruling’ – Asia Bibi’s lawyer, who fled Pakistan

November 5, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Imran Khan, Islamic extremism, Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Salmaan Taseer, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

The lawyer who defended the Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi* against blasphemy charges and secured her acquittal at the Supreme Court says he does not expect a review of her case to take place. As part of its agreement with an Islamist political party to stop its violent protests, the . . . Read More

Pakistan court acquits 20 in case of Christian couple burnt alive

March 26, 2018 Pakistan Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Lahore, Minorities, Pakistan, Punjab, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Relatives of Shahzad Masih and his five-months-pregnant wife Shama Bibi are oraying at the site where the couple was killed for their “blasphemous” act on 4 November 2014. (Photo: Getty Images/AFP/Arif Ali)

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore, Pakistan, on Saturday (24 March) acquitted 20 men suspected of involvement in the murder of a Christian couple burnt alive at the kiln where they worked in November 2014 – after it was alleged that they had set fire to some pages from a Quran. . . . Read More

Death sentence for killers of Christian couple burned alive in Pakistan

November 24, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Lahore, Punjab, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Pakistani Christians mourn the death of the couple burnt alive on 4 November 2014 for setting fire to some pages from the Qur’an. An Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore, Pakistan yesterday (23 Nov.) sentenced five men to death for the murder of a Christian couple who were burned alive in November . . . Read More

Freedom of religion or belief ‘the defining issue of our time’

September 16, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Angela Merkel, Boko Haram, Canada, Copts, Egypt, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Jan Figel, Kandhamal, Myanmar, New York, North Korea, Norway, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Saudi Arabia, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi, Syria

Over 100 parliamentarians from 60 countries met this week in Berlin for a series of workshops and seminars under the title, “An Embattled Right: Protecting and Promoting Freedom of Religion of Belief”. The second conference of this size after last year’s meeting in New York, it was organised by the . . . Read More

Pakistan court grants bail to chief suspect in oven killings of Christian couple

April 19, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Kasur, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

A Pakistani court has granted bail to the lead suspect in the brutal 2014 killings of a young Christian couple, burned alive in a brick kiln where they worked as bonded labourers, itself illegal in Pakistan. National outrage over their deaths meant the case had moved to Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Court . . . Read More

Pakistan’s Supreme Court makes landmark judgment

October 14, 2015 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Diyat, Islamabad, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Mumtaz Qadri, Nawaz Sharif, Rawalpindi, Salmaan Taseer, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi, Sunni Tehreek

n Mumtaz Qadri was showered with rose petals by supporters for killing Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer over his criticism of the blasphemy laws.Getty Images In a landmark judgment on 7 October the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) upheld the death sentence of Malik Mumtaz Qadri, 30, who murdered the former . . . Read More

Justice moves slowly in Pakistan

September 9, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Pakistan, Punjab, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has criticised the inaction of police in response to the November 2014 burning alive of a Christian couple, Shahzad Masih and Shama Bibi, in Punjab state. Five police officers were present Muslims descended upon the couple, who had been accused of desecrating a copy of the Quran. . . . Read More

Pakistan: 106 charged with murder

May 27, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Pakistan, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Pakistan has charged 106 people with murder, more than six months after a Christian couple were beaten and burnt to death by a mob, reports the BBC. Shahzad Masih, 26, and his five-month pregnant wife Shama, 24, were accused by the mob of burning pages of a Qur’an, as reported . . . Read More

Pakistani Christian couple ‘still alive’ when thrown into kiln – coroner

December 23, 2014 Pakistan Bonded labourers, Gojra, Kasur, Punjab, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Christians at a church in Punjab, Pakistan; Sept. 2014 World Watch Monitor A lawyer for the state of Punjab, Pakistan has described the murder of a Christian couple by a mob of at least 500 to 600 as “brutal and barbaric”. The post-mortem report on their twin deaths (first . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye