Pakistan
Blind man charged with blasphemy in Pakistan
A blind Christian man has been arrested and charged with blasphemy after a Muslim person accused him of insulting the Prophet, media reports said.
The Christian person was identified as 49-year-old Nadeem Masih.
Martha Yousaf, the nearly 80-year-old mother of Nadeem Masih, told Morning Star News that Waqas Mazhar and other Muslims often harassed her son, sometimes extorting money from him and other times throwing water on him or calling him names.
Mazhar works in the Model Town Park in Lahore as a parking contractor and the Christian man earned money from the same venue by providing a weighing scale for petty merchants.
“Sometimes kindhearted visitors would also give him more money due to his disability, but the park’s Muslim workers used to steal it from his pocket,” said Yousaf, a Catholic resident of Chak No. 9/4L village in Okara District, Punjab Province. “Some, including Mazhar, had also taken loans of various amounts from him but refused to return the money despite his repeated requests.”
When Masih went to work on Aug. 21, Mazhar and the others refused to let him set up his makeshift stall, Yousaf said.
“When Masih protested against their harassment, Mazhar and another man manhandled him and forced him to sit on a motorcycle and took him to the Model Town Police Station,” she said.
They reportedly accused him of blasphemy and handed him over to the police.
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