Pak court acquits 20 people accused of lynching, killing Christian couple

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court in Lahore has acquitted 20 people suspected of involvement in the lynching and burning alive a Christian couple accused of blasphemy.

Shahzad and Shama Masih, who were working as labourers at a brick kiln in Kot Radha Kishan, Punjab province, were attacked by a mob of around 1,000 people in November 2014 for allegedly desecrating the Quran. Shama was pregnant at the time of the incident.

The couple was brutally tortured, dragged and thrown into the furnace of the kiln by the mob. Police registered a case against 660 villagers after the incident.

In 2015, the Lahore court indicted 106 suspected in the lynching. In November 2016, the court sentenced five men to death on two counts for their involvement in the couple’s murder. Eight others were charged with involvement in the lynching and sentenced to two years each in prison.

On Saturday, the court acquitted 20 suspects, giving them the benefit of doubt.

Christian organisations have condemned the move and said that it would encourage the killings of more innocent people in the future.

It’s a twoway street: the warming means less ice is going to form and more ice is going to melt, but also, because there’s less ice, less of the sun’s incident solar radiation is reflected off, and this contributes to the warming. CLAIRE PARKINSON, scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center