Muslims on Sunday (Sept. 7) shot to death one Catholic and wounded another as they traveled to a pilgrimage site in Punjab Province, Pakistan, sources said.
Afzal Masih of Samnabad locality of Lahore in Punjab Province, and his cousin Harris Tariq Masih were among a group of Catholics who were in a passenger van en route to the annual Feast of the Nativity of Mary shrine in Mariamabad, Sheikhpura District, when they were attacked by Muslims with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, said Aurangzeb Peter, a member of the traveling group.
“We were about 12-13 people in the van, including women and young girls of our families,” Peter said. “When we were on the Sheikhupura highway at around 1:30 a.m., three Muslim youths riding two motorcycles started teasing and catcalling our women passengers. They also blocked our way by zigzagging their bikes in front of our van.”
Afzal Masih, sitting in the front seat, asked the assailants to stop harassing the women, and the Muslims stopped the van and pulled him out onto the road, Peter said.
“They started beating him with fists and kicks and attacked us as well when we tried to rescue Afzal,” Peter told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
When the assailants noticed the posters and cross pasted on the vehicle and heard that all the passengers were Christians en route to the shrine, they started cursing in coarse language.
“They also called us Chuhra [pejorative term used for Christians] and said how could we dare to call them out,” Peter said.
The assailants left and the pilgrims resumed their journey, but when they stopped at a gas station for a tire pressure check, the three Muslims suddenly appeared with weapons as Afzal Masih and Harris Masih were standing with the driver. One of them, later identified as Muhammad Waqas of Farooqabad, opened fire with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, shooting Afzal Masih in the neck and Harris Masih in his right arm, Peter said.
Afzal Masih died instantly. He was 44.
Harris Masih was seriously injured, Peter said. Farooqabad police in Sheikhupura registered a case against Waqas and his two unidentified accomplices but have failed to make any arrests, he added.
Afzal Masih leaves behind his wife and four sons.
Christian attorney Kashif Nemat, head of the Good Samaritan Society for Development and Rehabilitation, condemned the attacks as religiously motivated.
“This incident is clearly an act of persecution on the basis of the victim’s religious identity,” Nemat told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The other passengers who witnessed the gruesome attack on Afzal and Harris told us that they had covered their van with posters of the pilgrimage and cross signs which clearly identified them as Christians. Afzal had only stopped the assailants from teasing the women passengers, which offended them to the extent that they not only tortured him but returned with guns to kill him.”
Nemat said that in most cases of violence against Christians, the perpetrators believe that they can get away with anything, even murder, since their victims are too weak to oppose them.
Moreover, he added, Christians also face systemic discrimination in seeking of justice.
“In this case, the police have not added Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the First Information Report [FIR] despite the fact that the assailants used an automatic weapon to commit the crime in full public view, spreading fear and panic in the area,” Nemat said. “This attitude of the police emboldens the majority to carry out religiously-motivated attacks with impunity.”
He said the government and senior police officials should to take notice of the injustice. His organization is providing the family legal aid as they are poor.
“I will pursue the case and will try my best to bring the murderers to justice,” he said. “However, I would like to appeal Christians to support the poor family as they have lost their breadwinner.”
Afzal Masih worked as a rickshaw driver while his mother Shagufta Bibi worked as a cleaner at a local school, said his son Bilal Afzal, 18.
“We are very poor, and both our parents worked very hard to put food on our table,” Bilal Afzal told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “My mother is devastated by the incident and hasn’t spoken a word since the time news of my father’s murder reached us. We can only plead the government for justice as we have no financial means to pursue the case.”
Pakistan, whose population is more than 96 percent Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.
