Pakistani court acquits 20 suspects in burning alive of two Christians
A court in Pakistan's Punjab province has acquitted a group of 20 local thugs who burned a Pakistani Christian man and woman alive in 2014, causing their tragic deaths.
The group, Shama Shahzad and Shahzad Masih, threw the brick workers alive into a brick kiln on false charges of blasphemy and burning the Quran. The incident took place in the city of Kot Radha Kishan in Punjab province.
After determining that the couple had not committed the crime, the police arrested a large number of accused and produced them before the court. In 2016, the Punjab Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced five of the perpetrators to death and 10 to prison. The remaining 93 accused were acquitted.
On Saturday, the Punjab court prosecutor said the court had acquitted 20 other defendants and they had been released.
Pakistan passed a law in the 1980s that makes blasphemy punishable by death. This law has led to mobs killing someone simply by accusing them of blasphemy.
The US State Department believes that Pakistan's blasphemy law has become a pretext for thugs who themselves act as law enforcers.
Source: Radio Farda
