The family of a young Christian man who sustained serious injuries while allegedly escaping sexual abuse is demanding to know how he was implicated in a blasphemy case.
Sajid Masih, 24, was due to have surgery on Feb. 27 after jumping from the fourth floor of the Punjab headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a suicide attempt on Feb. 23. He was being interro-gated with his cousin Patras Masih, 18, who was arrested on Feb. 19 for allegedly posting an insulting photo of the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad on a Facebook account.
Sajid claims he was being punished for an act allegedly committed by his cousin and that security authorities had ordered the two men to engage in a homosexual act as they attempted to force confessions from them both. Critics say police duress in such cases is common in Pakistan.
Abid Masih Ghouri, Sajid’s father, was called by a govern-ment hospital official shortly after the suicide attempt that sparked a nationwide outcry from mino-rity circles and civil society. “My senses faded after seeing his bloody body on a hospital trolley. I have never cried so much in my life,” Ghouri, 46, a sanitary worker, told ucanews. com.
