Lahore: (Pervez Yousaf) March 04, 2020: The National Commission for Interreligious Dialogue & Ecumenism (NCIDE) and Church of Pakistan (Raiwind Diocese) jointly raised voice against the brutal killing of Saleem Masih, who was a resident of Chunian district Kasur, Punjab, Pakistan. The meeting was chaired by Most Rev. Bishop Azad Marshal of Church of Pakistan, Raiwind Diocese. Fr. Francis Nadeem OFM Cap, Rev. Emmanuel Khokhar and Sahibzada Maulana Muhammad Asim Makhdoom were among the leading personalities in this special meeting. 

A brief Note of the tragedy: “Saleem Masih aged 22, a Christian farm worker, was brutally tortured by local landowners in Kasur on accusations that he had ‘polluted’ their tube-well water by bathing in it. On Feb 25, Saleem had finished unloading chaff in fields in Baguyana village and was rinsing himself off in the tube-well when a group of men, including Sher Dogar, Iqbal, Altaf, Jabbar and Haji Muhammad rushed over, yanked him out of the water and began beating him. They cursed and abused Saleem for ‘polluting’ the water, calling him a ‘filthy Christian,’ the assailants then dragged the youth to their cattle farm, where they chained his hands and feet and continued to torture him with sticks and rods. They also rolled a thick iron rod over Saleem’s entire body, causing multiple fractures and internal injuries.  The assailant kept her severely wounded body in their illegal custody for about three days and handed over to his family after repeated pleadings. The family immediately brought him to a hospital in Lahore in Feb 27 but he could not survive and succumbed to his injuries on Friday, Feb 28.”

The whole episode stunned the participants for some moments. They highly regretted the role of police who was acted like a spectator.   

All the participants strongly condemned the barbaric and inhuman and heinous crime of the assailants and demanded the provincial and federal governments to deal the killers with iron hands. 

Fr. Francis Nadeem OFM Cap said that it is responsibility of the state to provide security to all the citizens of the country without any sort of discrimination.  All the citizens equally play their due role for the development of their beloved country and deserve equal rights as well.  We are one nation and live under one flag. 

Bishop Azad Marshal taking a serious note of the tragic incident said that he will himself lodge the FIR against the criminals and do not step back until the culprits are awarded the appropriate punishment.

The interreligious assembly expressed their grief over the persecution faced by the Muslims of India and Indian held Kashmir.  The demanded the Indian government to immediately stop the violence against Muslims and avoid to implement the discriminative law regarding the citizenship.

The session unanimously passed a resolution with the following clauses:

1.            Today’s interreligious meeting strongly condemns the publically killings of minorities in India and appeal the worldwide organizations of Human Rights to take immediate actions to stop the violence against Muslims of India

2.            This gathering of interreligious harmony condemns the merciless killing of Saleem Masih on the basis of religious discrimination and the government of Pakistan for an immediate and appropriate sentence for all the culprits.  This session also demands the government that instead of chanting void slogans it must take practical measures to avoid the such kind of incidents in future.

The meeting was attended by a good number of representatives of different communities of the society including; Rev. Dr. Majeed Abel (Moderator of Presbyterian Church), Rev. Shahid Meraj, Robinson Aziz Francis, Sardar Manmohan Singh, Amarnath Randhawa, Allama Asghar Arif Chishti, Sohail Ahmed Raza, Dr. Badar Munir, Dr. Amjad Hussain Chishti, Rev. Samuel Nawab, Mufti Ashiq Hussain Shah, Mufti Abdul Rehman, Qari Ahmed Shakeel Sidddiqui, Maulana Younas Rehan, Fr. Shahzad, Rev. Saleem Khokhar, Aman Ullah Khan, Qari Tahir Sharif, Hafiz Abdullah, Maulana Abdullah Saifullah of Saudi Arabia, Sahibzada Ahmed Badar and others.