AWP spokesman Farooq Tariq said that this incident has highlighted once again the severe persecution of minorities, particularly Christians by the state and the religious right in Pakistan. He said it was doubly condemnable that a trumped-up accusation of blasphemy against a single individual became an excuse for religious mobs led by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik collectively punish against the entire Christian community in Shahdara.

AWP Information Secretary Farman Ali said that what made this particular instance even more grotesque was the fact that Sajid Masih was allegedly tortured and asked to perform sexual acts on his cousin, due to which he was forced to jump out of the fourth story of the FIA building, resulting in life-threatening injuries. To make the situation even more absurd, officials registered a suicide case against Sajid Masih, when he was just attempting to escape the torture and sexual abuse being meted out to him by officers of the FIA’s cyber crime wing.

AWP President Fanoos Gujjar said that he considered the treatment of Sajid and Patras Masih by FIA officers to be a crime against humanity and demanded that an independent inquiry should ensure that the responsible officers be penalized for enacting torture on the accused in their custody. He said the families of Patras and Sajid Masih, as well as the broader Christian community in the area, must be provided immediate protection by the government to protect from further victimization by rightwing mobs and corrupt state officials. He further said that immediate legal and administrative measures needed to be taken to protect the lives of Pakistan’s minorities and create checks against the abuse of power by law enforcement agencies.

Mr Gujjar further said that the blasphemy law had become a tool in the hands of unscrupulous elements to violently persecute minorities and progressives, and the state had to take immediate action to stop the support of rightwing groups that were creating an atmosphere of fear. He said the AWP would continue to mobilize ordinary people to stand up to state and religious fascism and protect the rights of the vulnerable and minorities against such unjustifiable brutality.

Awami Workers Party