SIALKOT, Pakistan — Tensions are still high in a Pakistani village following Muslims’ attempt to seize land from a Christian family by threatening to accuse them of “blasphemy.”
What began on Feb. 19 as a quarrel over a pigeon between Christian and Muslim youths at Nawa Pind Sabu Mohal village, in Sialkot’s Pasroor area in northeast Punjab province, grew into an occasion to jail some Christians in the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim country, the Christians said.
Gulshan Masih, 20, said that after the young Muslims carried on the stone-throwing fight from within a mosque — later accusing the Christians of desecrating the mosque by throwing stones at it — police officers arrived and took his father, 55-year-old Bashir Masih, and 50-year-old uncle, Pervaiz Masih, into custody. Two days later, Feb. 21, police arrested eight more Christians, including Gulshan Masih, in order to increase pressure on them, according to Napoleon Qayyum, a Christian rights activist. He said it was evident that the Muslims were trying to seize a plot of land owned by Bashir Masih, as they demanded that he surrender it as a condition for the release of the jailed Christians. Police released Bashir and Pervaiz Masih and the other eight Christians the evening of Feb. 22 with a warning that they would be charged with blasphemy if they did not meet the conditions set the previous day by a “reconciliation committee” made up of the area’s notable Muslim leaders, Qayyum said.
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