ASIA/PAKISTAN – No one convicted: defendants acquitted in lynching of Christian couple

Islamabad – No one has been held responsible. The 2014 murder of a Christian couple in Pakistan’s Punjab Province will remain unpunished after the country’s Supreme Court brought the case to a close by acquitting the last remaining defendants.
In a ruling issued on July 10, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentences imposed on the three remaining convicts and dismissed the Punjab government’s appeal against the Lahore High Court’s earlier acquittal of another 102 defendants.
Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife, Shama Bibi , worked at a brick kiln and were attacked in Kot Radha Kishan, in Kasur District, on November 4, 2014. They were falsely accused of blasphemy, and a mob lynched them and threw them into a brick kiln, where they were burned alive .
Police opened an investigation involving more than 600 suspects, including the owner of the brick kiln and the local imam. In 2016, a first-instance court sentenced five defendants, to death, while eight others received lesser sentences for aiding and abetting the crime. The remaining suspects were either acquitted or never brought to trial.
In 2019, the Lahore High Court acquitted two of the five men sentenced to death, , while upholding the death sentences of the remaining three. The court also acquitted another 102 defendants.
Now, in the final instance of the trial, the Supreme Court has acquitted the final three defendants, granting them the “benefit of the doubt” because of weaknesses and inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case. The final outcome is that no one has been found guilty of the murder of the Christian couple, as all of the main suspects and those previously convicted have ultimately been acquitted.
The ruling has sparked shock and disappointment among Pakistan’s Christian communities and human rights organizations.
In a statement sent to Fides by the Justice and Peace Commission, Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference and Chairman of the Commission, described the verdict as “part of a recurring pattern in which perpetrators of serious crimes against religious minorities remain unpunished.”
The Commission recalled similar cases, including the anti-Christian violence in Gojra on August 1, 2009, and the attack on Lahore’s Joseph Colony in March 2013, where all 115 defendants were acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
They also call for concrete measures to ensure justice for religious minorities, urging the government to strengthen witness protection and to ensure that those responsible for acts of mass violence are held accountable.
Bishop Shukardin also appealed to the faithful to remain peaceful, to pray for the strength to endure hardship, and to remain steadfast in their faith.
Shama and Shahzad left behind three children. Since then, the Cecil & Iris Chaudhry Foundation in Lahore has provided for the three orphaned children’s education and care .

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