"We are trying to raise awareness of what is happening and put pressure on Pakistan to bring in laws to protect these people."
Source/Credit: Bradford Telegraph and Argus
By Steve Wright | November 9, 2014
A PROTEST demonstration was held in Centenary Square to draw attention to the plight of minority religious groups in Pakistan after a Christian couple were murdered and their bodies burned.
A crowd, including Bradford Councillor Ghazanfer Khaliq, attended the hastily-arranged event yesterday after news of the horrific deaths in the Punjab province last week.
Shehzad Masih, 26, a brick kiln worker, and his five-months pregnant wife Shama, 24, were beaten to death by a fanatical mob and their bodies later burned in a kiln in a village about 40 miles from Lahore.
The protest was organised by the Bradford branch of the South Asian People's Forum and attended by cultural leaders from across West Yorkshire.
Cllr Khaliq (Lab, Bradford Moor) told the Telegraph & Argus: "It is important for us, living in an open and civilised society, to show how disgusted we are with the recent events.
"There are two things we can do here in Bradford; we can show our disgust at what has taken place and we can ask the British Government to put pressure on the government of Pakistan to take steps against those people who take the law into their own hands."
Cllr Khaliq said the murdered couple had been accused of blasphemy against the Prophet, or of burning the Holy Book, but police said it was a false allegation.
He added: "The Pakistani government needs to make sure that the minorities are protected. They should have equal rights - the same rights people have in this country.
"We wanted to show symbolically that we stand with that family."
The dead man may have been in dispute with the kiln owner over wages, according to the South Asian People's Forum.
Forum co-ordinator Pervez Fateh, of Pudsey, said religious extremists who wanted to make sure there was no law and order were responsible for the killings.
He said: "We are trying to raise awareness of what is happening and put pressure on Pakistan to bring in laws to protect these people."
He said the forum was "shocked and saddened beyond words by the callous murder of the couple and their unborn child" and had expressed grave concern.
"We ask people of all sections of society to join and support us to strongly demand for the repeal of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, that injustice against persecuted minorities and people of conscience may end."
The killing of people accused of blasphemy, is becoming commonplace in Pakistan.
In 2009 more than 100 houses of Christians were looted and set on fire in the city of Gojra.
And last year, thousands of Muslim fundamentalists attacked Joseph Colony, a Christian area in the heart of Lahore.
According to Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), there have been more than 52 killings in the context of blasphemy in two decades in Pakistan.
Read original post here: South Asian People's Forum protest about murders of Christian couple
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