Christian bludgeoned by Pakistani policeman

Islamabad, Pakistan — A Pakistani police constable bludgeoned to death a Christian jailed on blasphemy charges, declaring he wanted to earn a place in paradise. Samuel Masih died May 28 from severe head injuries inflicted by Faryad Ali, a Muslim police officer in his late 20s. In the early morning hours of May 24, Ali entered the Lahore hospital ward where the Christian prisoner was being treated for tuberculosis and struck Masih on the head with a brick-cutter hammer, despite a policeman on duty near his hospital bed.

Masih was jailed last August on accusations that he had desecrated a mosque. Muhammad Yaqoob, librarian of the Idara Darusalam Jinnah Garden Mosque in Lahore, filed the blasphemy charges, claiming he had seen Masih spit on the wall of a mosque near the library. This is a case that brings out, like nothing else, the myriad of contradictions  these [blasphemy] laws have infused in this state and society, commented a Daily Times editorial the day after Masih’s death.