A typical shop in Faisalabad, Pakistan
Washington, D.C. – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that police arrested Imran John, a 22-year-old shopkeeper, for blasphemy on July 1 in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Imran was arrested after he was accused by Haji Liaqat, a neighboring Muslim shopkeeper, of burning pages of the Qur’an. Imran had been cleaning his small grocery shop and took the trash out to the street to burn – a common method of disposing of garbage in Pakistan. Haji saw him doing this, and went and told some other Muslims that Imran had desecrated the Qur’an.
Immediately a crowd of Muslims gathered, grabbed Imran, and started beating him. Some bystanders, both Christian and Muslim, ran up to help and called the police. The police soon arrived and took Imran into custody.
Hundreds of Muslims gathered later that day after imams announced over mosque loudspeakers that a Christian had blasphemed Islam. The mob blocked roads, burned tires, and demanded that Imran be put to death.
Karamat Gill, a Christian social worker from Imran’s neighborhood, told ICC, “We have lived in the area peacefully with Muslims for decades and nothing like this has ever happened here. There must be a conspiracy behind this.”
Christian leaders are urging calm and asking Muslims to let the police investigate the matter. The Christians maintain, though, that the police arrested Imran after the mobs gathered, conducted no investigation, and are holding him with no proof.
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