A 49-year-old blind Christian in Pakistan has been arrested and charged with blasphemy, punishable by death, after a Muslim accused him of insulting Islam’s prophet, his mother said.
Martha Yousaf, the nearly 80-year-old mother of Nadeem Masih, said 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.
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Mazhar works in the Model Town Park in Lahore as a parking contractor, where Masih also earned a meager income 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.
There they accused him of blasphemy and handed him to police, who booked him under Section 295-C of the harsh laws, which calls for the death sentence for insulting Muhammad.
World Watch
Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written and originally published by Morning Star News.
