DINGA, Pakistan — A member of an Islamic extremist group in Pakistan has accused a Christian minor of blasphemy after the boy had an argument with a Muslim, sources said.
Hina Shafaqat, mother of 17-year-old Shahzad Masih, said her son had been wrongly implicated in the case by a Muslim colleague with whom he had a quarrel, and the family has not been able to locate him since his arrest.
Working as a sweeper at Shamim Riaz Hospital in Dinga town, Gujrat District, Punjab Province for several months, Masih had an altercation with hospital pharmacy employee Ishtiaq Ahmed Jalali, she said. A fellow employee intervened and calmed the quarrel, but “Jalali nurtured a grudge against my son and has now plotted this case against him to settle the score,” she said. “The police arrested my son [July 14] and since then we have been trying to locate his whereabouts.”
Jalali is a member of Tehreek Tahafuz-e-Islam Pakistan.
Neither the Dinga police nor the Kharian police said they have him in their custody, she said.
Attorneys Riaz Anjum and Kashif Naimat from the Pakistan Center for Law and Justice said they had offered legal and financial assistance to Masih’s family. Anjum said their investigation had corroborated the account of the Christian family and said “the case is clearly fabricated.” (MS)
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