Posted by Press release on 27/7/2010, 12:40 pm
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ACN News: Tuesday, 27th July 2010 – PAKISTAN Bishop: Justice must be served By John Pontifex A BISHOP determined to bring peace after the latest violence against Christians in Pakistan has led calls for justice in the case of two brothers gunned down outside a crowded law court while being guarded by police. Allegations that the two Christians – Rashid Emmanuel, 32, and his 30-year-old brother Sajid – were guilty of a gross insult to the Prophet Mohammed were dismissed by Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad who linked the claims to extremists bent on fomenting violence and anti-Christian hatred. The two men were shot dead on Monday (19th July) at a law court in Faisalabad sparking a wave of violence and tension across the Punjabi city and beyond. Police used tear gas to disperse angry crowds in the brothers’ home of Waris Pura, Faisalabad, where Christians fled for their lives as both Protestant and Catholic churches came under attack from youths throwing stones. In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Bishop Coutts underlined that justice must be brought for the grieving families of the two brothers who died in “clear defiance of the law”. (Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad) The two men were shot dead as three police officers led them across the crowded precincts of a court house, where they were under investigation for having insulted Islam – a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment according to the country’s controversial Blasphemy Laws. Speaking from Faisalabad, Bishop Coutts told ACN: “We are demanding justice – the arrest of the killer. The men were killed in public with a lot of people present as witnesses as well as three police officers in attendance.” He added: “It should not be difficult to apprehend the person who killed them. We have got to keep putting pressure in the search for justice. The authorities would be quite happy to close the whole thing and let the matter drop.” The bishop said progress had already been made with the suspension of a police officer guarding the two men at the court, the promise of a judicial inquiry into their deaths and a possible government compensation package for people whose homes and livelihoods had been damaged in the Waris Pura violence. Bishop Coutts went on to implicate an increasingly active militant movement for having stirred up anti-Christian hatred by linking extremists to an allegation that the Emmanuel brothers had written a pamphlet denigrating the Prophet Mohammed and praising Christianity. The document included contact details for the brothers. Underlining the brothers’ innocence, the bishop said: “It would have been suicide for them to do such a thing as write a document of that kind. The document was produced to get them into trouble.” Clarifying earlier reports, the bishop explained that police were investigating the allegation but no charge had been brought. Results are awaited for laboratory tests on the pamphlet’s handwriting. Underlining the significance of recent militant activity culminating in attacks on a sacred Muslim shrine in Lahore, he said: “There are fanatics who want to create chaos and try to disrupt things. They could be behind what we have seen in recent days.” The bishop said he was redoubling efforts to restore relations between Muslims and Christians, which were already under strain following last year’s violence in the Punjab city of Gojra where eight Christians were killed. “We have seen a fracturing of relations between Muslims and Christians. People are very edgy. They are on pins and needles. “The problem is that this fanaticism we are seeing represents the views and actions of a minority and this silences the voice of the majority.” He explained how, alongside senior politicians and leading Muslims, he was working to restore relations. The bishop described an important breakthrough last week when at Friday (23rd July) prayers, imams in Faisalabad calmed the people by speaking up in favour of tolerance and human dignity. Editor’s Notes Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action. Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world. The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide. While ACN gives full permission for the media to freely make use of the charity’s press releases, please acknowledge ACN as the source of stories when using the material. For more information or to make a donation to help this work, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org