News

As the furore over the arrest of a minor Christian girl over blasphemy charge is yet to die down, the body of an 11-year-old boy from the minority community, bearing torture marks, was discovered in Faisalabad in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Wednesday, police have said.

Samuel Yaqoob, a resident of the Christian Colony of Faisalabad, 100 km from Lahore, was brutally tortured before being killed. He had been missing since the evening of August 20, when he left his home to go to the market. Yaqoob’s burnt body was found near a drain and his lips, nose and belly had been cut off.

His body was also badly burnt and according to relatives he was hardly recognisable.
The boy’s family recognised him from a mark on his forehead and the police have sent the body for an autopsy.

Yaqoob’s family and other residents of the Christian Colony staged a protest and demanded the arrest of his killers. Asia Bibi, the boy’s mother, told police that her family had no enmity with anyone in the area and that her son had not committed any blasphemy.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Shafiq Ahmed has said that the police are investigating all aspects of the case. Ruling out the possibility that Yaqoob had been kidnapped for a ransom,he added that Yaqoob’s father died a few months ago and the family was very poor.

The killing came days after an 11-year-old Christian girl with Down’s Syndrome was arrested by police in Islamabad on a charge of blasphemy for allegedly burning pages of the Quran. Rimsha Masih’s family and dozens of Christians fled their homes due to threats from Muslims. President Asif Ali Zardari directed the Interior Ministry to investigate the incident and to provide protection to the Christians.