Pakistan: Another Innocent will be Hanged on 12th March 2008

ANAA condemns the death sentence of Mr. Zahid Masih as it is alleged that proper investigation of the case was not done and he was not given proper legal representation.

AHRC has done a great service by bringing this issue to the public.

Please send the appeal to appropriate people as suggested by AHRC.

ANAA





Death by hanging of a man set on March 12 after confessing due to torture by military

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the death sentence of a man from minority community, who is due to be executed on 12 March 2008. He was charged with murder however, he was allegedly severely tortured after the illegal arrest. It is also alleged that he was not provided any legal representative during the military trial. He was not allowed to communicate with his parent during his two years of military custody and meet his parents only after the military court convicted him.

CASE DETAILS:
According to the information received, Mr. Zahid Masih son of Salamat Masih was recruited in the Pakistan Army as a sanitary worker and sweeper in August 2001 at the cantonment of Multan city, Punjab province. After some months he was transferred to another cantonment at Tarbella- Punjab province, 600 kilometers far from Multan, his hometown. He served in Tarbella cantonment for almost two years and in 2003 he was again transferred to another place, the Chirat, a cantonment at Peshawar in province of North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) as a sweeper because of his good work and loyalty to officers.

He joined Regiment/Unit 4 Commando Battalion (Special Service Group) Chirat. When he reached and joined service at Chirat cantonment he heard that a 9-year-old boy was sexually molested and murdered by unknown persons among the staff of the cantonment and there was a military investigation going on. After one weak of joining service he was given two months leave to go home for recreation as it is a common feature that, whenever there is a transfer the staff is allowed to have leave. Zahid Masih went to Multan to meet his parents and other family members and after two months he returned to Chirat to resume his duties. Till that time the investigation of murder was going on. Suddenly, one month after his return Zahid Masih was disappeared from the work place and his whereabouts were not known to the family for about two years.

Zahid's family later found him in Central jail at Peshawar charged with murder under Section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). He was accused of committing sodomy and killing the nine-year-old boy, Muhammad Adnan on 1 March 2005. The Military Court found Zahid guilty and sentenced him death on 10 March 2006.

While in the military custody for 2 years, he was extensively interrogated for 28 days consecutively and he was severely tortured to confess to the murder of the boy. Due to the severity of the torture he had no choice but to confess even though he alleged that he was innocent. Some Orderlies of officers came and persuaded him that if he confessed the officers would provide him with relief. Mr. Mohammad Khusheed son of Mohammad Nawaz, the orderly of an army officer, conveyed this message to him with saying that his confession would save the image of Pakistan Army. Zahid Masih informed these facts to his brother in a letter. However, Zahid was not allowed to meet with his family during his trial in the cantonment by a military court and the family did also not know about that.

When Zahid Masih was allowed to meet his family in early 2008, he told his family that he was made an escape goat as he was Christian and a sweeper. He further said that the messengers from officers of Chirat cantonments convinced him that he would be free from the charges if he confessed the crime. He alleged that military persons at cantonment killed the boy and they wanted to shift the offence to weakest person.

On 20 January 2008, Zahid's mother wrote a mercy appeal to the President and human rights groups and the Church leadership wrote letters to the authorities, including the President. Due to this intervention, the execution date was delayed for 20 days however, it is again scheduled on 12 March 2008.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Pakistan is among the top in the list of countries with the highest number of executions (along with China, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and USA). It has approximately 7,400 convicts awaiting execution. According to the Amnesty International 2007 report, 82 persons were executed in 2006. A local source claimed that 109 people have been awarded death sentence in the first 9 months of 2007 and about 10,000 were executed in Pakistan in the past 11 years.

According to the PPC 302, which Zahid Masih is charged under: whoever commits pre-meditated murder shall be punished with (a) death as "retaliation"; (b) death or imprisonment for life as corporal punishment to be administered at the discretion of the judge; and (c) imprisonment of up to 25 years, provided it is not committed in the name or the pretext of honour.

According to the PPC section 304, the proof of murder could be in form of voluntary and true confession before a competent court that the accused committed the offence; and by evidence as provided in Article 17 of the Qanun-e-Shahadat, 1984 (P.O. No. 10 of 1984), based on the competence of a person to testify and the number of witnesses required accordingly.
Local sources claim that the penal system in Pakistan is full of loopholes and defects. It may be better sometimes not to hang the alleged killers due to mal-administration of justice, police service dereliction, and cultural prejudices affecting women and religious minorities.
It has also been commented that the laws have become "tools for personal vendettas against vulnerable segments of society, including the poor and minorities" and are often "manipulated, especially in blasphemy cases, where both judicial system and police department investigate with bias, without checking veracity of the facts."

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write the letter and fax to the following authorities showing your concern of what appears to be an unfair trial and a confession obtained by torture. Please also demand clemency as he is innocent of this crime and at the time of murder of young boy he was doing job in anther cantonment of Tarbela. After his transfer to Chirat he was booked in the case only because he was from a minority community and a weak target as being the sweeper, the most lowest job.

The AHRC writes letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture and working group on arbitrary detention calling for urgent intervention in this case.

Dr. Younus Sheikh: Another Blasphemy Victim

Oct 2000: Dr. Younus Sheikh imprisoned on charges of Blasphemy. His crime was the answers he gave to his students about whether the Prophet Mohammad followed Muslim practices before he assumed prophethood. Those who brought the charges had not been present in the lecture hall and are known for their sectarian bias.

Aug 2001: He was given death sentence.

Nov 2003: He was acquitted and freed after an appeal and retrial.

Background to Dr. Younus Sheikh Case:

Born in 1952. Graduated medicine from Multan and did post graduate from Dublin and England. Served as a trainee surgeon in England from 1981-88. Returned to Pakistan and was teaching in a medical college in Islamabad.

He was active in Human right groups and at a meeting of the South Asian Union on 1^st October 2000, Younus Shaikh suggested that, in the interest of the people of Kashmir, the line of control between the Indian and Pakistani forces should become the international border. This clearly offended a Pakistani officer who responded by saying to Dr Shaikh that “I will crush the heads of those that talk like this”. On 3^rd October Dr Shaikh was suspended by his college without explanation.

Later that evening, an employee of the Pakistani Foreign Office, who was also one of Dr Shaikh’s students, complained to a cleric, saying that on 2^nd October in a lecture between 12:00 noon and 12:40 pm, the doctor had made blasphemous remarks about the Prophet of Islam. The cleric filed a complaint with the police. Younus Shaikh was arrested on the evening of 4^th October and charged with blasphemy. case details


Dr. Younus Sheikh thank you letter after relesed to International Humanist and ehthical union. click here

Blasphemy Law:

Blasphemy Law was enacted by Zia-ul-Haq in his drive to Islamize Pakistan.

Once accused you are put in prison. Trials are in a hostile court room where victim's lawyer is thretened with harm to them and their family. Following people were shot dead by extremist during the trial:

As recently as July 2002, Mohammed Yousaf was shot dead inside the Central Gaol in Lahore while awaiting his appeal. On 7th February 2003, Mushtaq Zafar, a 55 year-old man accused of blasphemy was shot dead on his way home from the High Court. And in June 2003, Naseem Bibi, 35, who had been the victim of a gang rape by police, was charged with blasphemy, and was murdered in prison before her trial could begin.

Amnesty writes that "The blasphemy laws of Pakistan are a handy tool to silence debate and dissent. They are also used to detain people when the real motivation includes land issues or professional rivalry. In the interest of justice, the blasphemy laws should be abolished or as a first step amended to prevent abuse." Amnesty Report Aug 2001

Blashphemy Law 295-C

Ahmadiyya Community: Innocents Killed because of their Faith.

Oct 30, 2000 - in a village near Sialkot, Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed was among 5 dead and seven injured when un-identified men opened fire on members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community when they were offering Fajr (morning) prayers inside their Mosque.

The motive for the attack is not yet known but human rights groups have constantly highlighted the persecution suffered by the Ahmedis in Pakistan.

A 1974 constitutional amendment during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government had declared the sect outside Islam after a countrywide movement against them.

A 1984 decree by military ruler General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq banned it from using Islamic forms of worship or describing its places of worship as mosques. Ahmedis are reviled by Muslims as heretics who believe that Holy Prophet Mohammed (Pbuh) is the last prophet.



Sources also speculate involvement of a feared underground outfit, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, in the killing. "LJ has a history of attacking Ahmedis and their involvement is a possibility," a police source said quoting the kidnapping-cum-murder of a Qadiani in Chiniot last year. Three LJ activists including Ijaz alias Jaji were killed in a police shootout after they had kidnapped and killed a Qadiani.

Complete Press report of the incident. click here

Who is responsible for the persecution. The rabid mullah bend upon using religion as "political capital" or the civil society which tolerates the persecution of innocents.

These issues needs to be discussed and laws like Blasphemy, Hudood Ordinance, Qisas and Diyat have no place if we want to see a modern progressive Pakistan.

Brief History of Ahmadiya community click here

List of Ahmedis persecuted in Pakistan click here

Amnesty on Religious Freedom in Pakistan click here

2006: US state Department on Religious Freedom in Pakistan click here

Why Bishop John Joseph shot himself?

Sahiwal , 6 May 1998 at 9:30 PM, great human right defender, Bishop John Joseph shot himself in the same court room where , a Christian man, Ayub Masih, had been condemned to death for blasphemy against Islam. His crime: He allegedly had spoken favorably of British author Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

Dennis Coddy of National Catholic reporter writes that for Joseph, the persecution of Ayub Masih symbolized the plight of all Christians in Pakistan. Masih -- a name given to all Christians in Pakistan -- was the fourth Christian to be sentenced to death for blasphemy in that country since the early 1990s. Several Christians have been killed in mob violence while awaiting trail for blasphemy charges.

Joseph said the charges against Ayub Masih had been trumped up to force 15 Christian families out in a local land dispute.

Speaking at a rally in Vienna, Austria, in March 1998, one of his last public speeches outside Pakistan, Joseph, summed up the sentiments of Christians in Pakistan, had warned, "We have had enough. We shall protest in such a way that the world will be shocked."

In Pakistan, people saw his action as like that of a mother who throws herself in the line of fire to save her child from being killed, he said. "The words of Ayub Masih's mother sum it up: `He died to save my son's life.'"

Earlier in Lahore on April 7, 1994, at the funeral of Manzoor Masih (another Christian charged with blasphemy who was gunned down outside the courthouse while still on trial), Joseph publicly announced that he was ready to die if necessary.

Mendes recalls the words the bishop preached at Manzoor Masih's funeral: "Bishop John said, `Manzoor, we are sorry this happened to you. If anybody's blood was needed, I should have been the first. I shall shed my blood but will not allow the blood of my people to spill in the country.' (Full article)

Bishop death should be remembered as a sacrifies he gave to save life of others. We should educate ourselves about the Blasphemy law and organize to work towards its repeal. Bishop should be remembered as a real leader, a true hero who died for his followers.

AHRC on Bishops death. (click here)
Bishop hailed as Qui Kyun of South Asia (Click here)
NCJP, founded by Bishop himself, statement on Bishop's death (Statement)