Family members touch a coffin of a relative, who was killed in a blast outside a public park on Sunday, during a funeral in Lahore, Pakistan, March 28, 2016.
A Pakistani Christian father of three was burned to death last week because he was unable to pay his debt to local shop owners in the town of Sialkot in the Punjab province, according to a United Kingdom-based charity.
The Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement reports that an eyewitness has said that 45-year-old
Ameen Masih was locked inside his home last Tuesday and burned alive by local
shop owners and their accomplices.
The motive for the attack, according to the charity, was
that Masih had not paid the instalments he owed for the goods he purchased from
Afzal Electronics and Shehran Electronics.
Masih allegedly owed 350,000 Pakistani rupees for the
purchase of electronic appliances, which is the equivalent to about $5,400.
According to a press release, Masih, who was a hosiery
worker who made little money, was unable to pay his debt, which was about
18,000 rupees, or $278, per month.
The witness, Khalid Yousaf, explained that men by the name
of Muhammad Usman, Asim Ali, Yasir Bajwa and Shehran went to Masih's house last
Monday and beat him with bats and sticks and also threatened to kill him if he
did not pay the remainder of his debt.
"The whole day his family was unable to trace him, but
later that night the shopkeepers returned, trapped him in his home, set the
room on fire and locked it," the CLAAS press release explains. "They
stayed outside the room and did not allow any of the family members or local
residents to unlock the room to save Ameen's life."
"Later, his family dialed the police helpline while the
perpetrators managed to escape with the keys to the burning room," the
release, which includes a photo of the burned bedroom, continued. "The
residents and relatives eventually broke through the wall of the room engulfed
with heavy smoke and found Ameen dead."
Masih's body was transferred by police to the local hospital
for an autopsy. Later that day, a funeral was held and Masih's body was buried.
The police have arrested Ali and Bajwa is out on pre-arrest
bail. Meanwhile, Usman and Shehran have not yet been detained. However, a local
police officer has said that Shehran's family has vowed to turn him into the
police in the coming days.
"CLAAS's team saw the actual room where Ameen was
killed. The team visited the Uggoki Police Station and met the Investigation
Officer Mr. Razzak, who was cooperating with the family," according to the
press release. "The team obtained a copy of the FIR report from the police
station."
CLAAS has offered legal assistance to Masih's widow, Rakhil
Bibi, who now has to raise three children on her own on just a factory worker's
salary.
"Rakhil Bibi was in a great shock at the tragic loss of
her husband and said it would be difficult for her to manage the house and
education of her three children," the report added. "The children
were traumatised at the loss of their father. She said that her children were
shocked after witnessing the brutal death of their father."
According to Open Doors USA's 2017 World Watch List,
Pakistan ranks as the fourth worst nation in the world when it comes to the
level of persecution facing Christians.
In 2015, a Christian teenager in Lahore was on the way to
work when he was approached by two Muslim men on their way to Muslim prayers.
The men asked the boy if he was Christian or Muslim. When the boy responded
that he was Christian, the men chased him down and set him on fire. The boy later died because of the severity
of his burns.
Late last month, it was reported that a prosecutor in Lahore offered to
arrange for an acquittal of imprisoned Pakistani Christians accused of lynching
two men after 2015 church bombings in Lahore if they renounced their faith in
Christ and accepted Islam.
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