Suspect in Lahore blasphemy case combating for his existence

Lahore, Pakistan – Sajid Masih lies in a clinic mattress, struggling to breathe, as a watchful police guard keeps a shut sight on him on the Mayo Sanatorium, within the eastern Pakistani metropolis of Lahore.

Each and every of Masih’s legs are in casts, and he is roofed in bruises. His left sight is bloodshot, and the different looks to maintain sunken in, where his cranium became fractured.

Sanatorium officials on the intensive care unit say he continues to be too serious to characteristic on, and that he’ll want a couple of surgical procedures on his neck, face and legs if he is ever to recover.

Decrease off from the launch air world since he tried to commit suicide by jumping from a fourth-floor window within the course of a police interrogation in a blasphemy case, he looks round fearfully, asking if the guard is there to arrest him.

Speaking is a battle, thru his oxygen conceal, but Sajid manages a couple of extra words.

« Is Patras free yet? » he asks.

‘We’re disquieted’

On February 19, a mob of dozens of excited protesters stormed a Christian neighbourhood correct launch air Lahore, accusing Patras Masih, Sajid’s cousin, of committing blasphemy.

They raised chants calling for Patras, a 21-year-outmoded sweeper, to be produced before them so that he could well well even be lynched, neighborhood participants instructed Al Jazeera.

When it turned into fantastic that Patras had already fled the dwelling, they produced cans of petrol, threatening to burn down your total neighbourhood.

Better than per week after the attack, the streets of the village of Baba Bandook Saeen remain largely abandoned, with most of the dwelling’s extra than 800 Christian residents too jumpy to come support.

« Our total village continues to be jumpy, we’re disquieted that one other mob attack also can occur, » says Waris Masih, fifty four, a labourer.

Patras Masih is accused of getting shared an allegedly blasphemous image on a Facebook messenger neighborhood, depicting a man standing in conjunction with his foot positioned on the dome of a mosque such as the Masjid-e-Nabvi, an Islamic holy residing.

Pakistan’s strict blasphemy criminal guidelines prescribe a critical demise penalty for anybody found responsible of « defiling the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad ».

Latest years maintain seen increasing violence connected to the criminal guidelines, with out a lower than Seventy 4 americans killed in attacks motivated by blasphemy accusations since 1990, in step with an Al Jazeera tally.

Christians and different minorities, who constructing up about two percent of Pakistan’s 207 million inhabitants, are disproportionately centered by the criminal guidelines, prosecution recordsdata displays.

Patras, a sweeper at a native monetary institution department, surrendered himself voluntarily to authorities on the night of February 19, hours after the mob attacked, his father Inderias Masih instructed Al Jazeera.

Days later, Federal Investigation Company (FIA) officials summoned Sajid to their headquarters in Lahore, demanding access to his cellular phone, his criminal skilled and FIA officials acknowledged.

Sajid went to the headquarters, and handed over his phone upon arrival, his criminal skilled Aneeqa Maria instructed Al Jazeera.

Hours later, quiet in FIA custody, Sajid Masih threw himself out of a fourth-floor window within the course of forensic examination of his phone, in an are trying and commit suicide.  

‘They took off Patras’ pants’

Sajid survived, then all all over again, and the the conditions that ended in his are trying and blueprint shut his maintain existence remain heavily disputed.

Hours after the incident, Sajid recorded a video assertion testifying that he had been heavily beaten within the course of his interrogation, with police officials accusing him of getting committed blasphemy.

He alleges that FIA officials tried to power him to assemble oral sex on Patras, his cousin.

« They took off Patras’ pants, and […] that is when he jumped out of the window, » Aneeqa Maria, criminal skilled for both males, instructed Al Jazeera.

« To flee all that humiliation and all that torture. He thought that it is miles most exciting if I die, comparatively than assemble this. »

In her first meeting in conjunction with her client, Maria says, Patras corroborated this myth, without being prompted with little print.

FIA officials say the allegations, pronouncing that Sajid jumped out of the window out of tension that he, too, became about to be accused of blasphemy.

« Sajid became sitting on the desk observing his phone being checked out within the forensic lab for two hours, and became rising extra and extra extra agitated, » says Khalid Saeed, an FIA investigator who became say on the time.

« [During the examination] he got up and ran for the window after which jumped out, out of tension. »

Sajid jumped onto the window sill, sat there for a couple of seconds, after which jumped, in step with Saeed, who is facing disciplinary circulation for allowing a suspect to come into pains’s scheme while in his custody.

Masih’s criminal skilled says she will be able to pursue additional correct circulation towards Saeed, whom Sajid accuses of torturing him.

From an examination of the window from which Sajid defenestrated himself, it is miles obvious that survival from any tumble could well well be highly no longer going.

While the narratives diverge on the residing off, the FIA and Sajid’s family and criminal skilled assemble agree on one thing: Sajid Masih didn’t attach a matter to to continue to exist the autumn.

Empowering accusers

Muhammad Siddiq, Patras Masih’s initial accuser, lives nearby and became a member of the Facebook Messenger neighborhood to which the image became allegedly sent, FIA officials say.

His case, then all all over again, has been championed by Muhammad Owais, a native worker of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA), a newly emergent non secular organisation that has sprung to nationwide prominence in Pakistan after a string of sturdy electoral performances and a instruct that paralysed the capital, Islamabad, in November.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi, TLRYA’s chief and a non secular settle who has made his name on the stutter of blasphemy, led a instruct of thousands that blocked a critical motorway into Islamabad in instruct towards a minor trade within the wording of an oath parliamentarians must blueprint shut asserting their rejection of the Ahmadi sect of Islam.

Rizvi’s instruct resulted within the resignation of a federal minister, the reversal of the trade within the oath and full amnesty for the worthy pains performed to infrastructure by the protesters.

Posters bearing Rizvi’s image and Owais’ name are seen all the scheme in which thru the Christian neighbourhood where Patras lives.

The mob that threatened to burn down the village became primarily made up of TLRYA activists, residents express. TLYRA denied the accusation, though leaders continue to threaten violence towards anybody who commits blasphemy.

« That man in Shahdara has long past beyond all limits, » says Ejaz Ashrafi, TLYRA’s recordsdata secretary.

« Why did he assemble so? When one crosses the limit, then you prefer to face the consequences, » he provides. 

« Anybody who disrespects the Prophet, his dwelling is now not any longer bag. »

Ashrafi says that while TLYRA had been gaining reputation in contemporary months, the success of the Islamabad instruct has pushed far extra americans towards it.

« There has positively been an magnify [after the protest]. Our target audience now has a higher awareness of our message. »

‘Systematic delays’

Hearings in Patras Masih’s case are yet to launch, but it completely is probably to blueprint shut years before a ideal verdict is reached.

« There is a systematic prolong in these conditions, » says Lahore-based mostly entirely mostly rights criminal skilled Asad Jamal, who has represented loads of americans accused of blasphemy.

Jamal on the 2d represents Junaid Hafeez, 31, a college lecturer within the central metropolis of Multan, who has been in custody for five years while his trial has been performed.

The ponder within the case, Jamal says, has been modified a couple of cases.

Other attorneys corroborated to Al Jazeera that judges typically assemble no longer appear to wish to hear blasphemy conditions, that are regarded as controversial.

On the least one ponder has been killed in Pakistan in reference to a blasphemy verdict.

Given the protection threat connected to the allegations, Hafeez has remained in solitary confinement for 4 years.

« When I meet Junaid within the barracks, the total convicts there who are in [the same] ward as him, say that he is shedding his thoughts, » says Jamal.

Hafeez is accused of being the administrator of a Facebook neighborhood where a blasphemous image became shared by a extraordinary particular person.

For Patras, then all all over again, the concerns are extra instantaneous.

His family remains in hiding, alarmed of being attacked within the occasion that they return to their dwelling.

His brother Jamshed became fired from his job following the accusations, his father Inderias instructed Al Jazeera.

On the clinic, Abid Masih, Sajid’s father, spends one other sleepless night on a stone bench launch air the emergency ward.

« We maintain performed whatever [the FIA] asked. They asked us to switch somewhere, we went there. They asked for the cellular phone, we gave the cellular phone. What else can we assemble? » he asks.

« We maintain seen the extent to which they are able to rush, from what Sajid has instructed us.

« Patras continues to be with them. »

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera’s Web Correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim.