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Photo: Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation
World News

Pakistani Christian teen dies after being set on fire

by Desmond Busteed

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Noman Masih was in a market in Gulshan Ravi in the city of Lahore on Friday, when he got into a conversation with two men on a motorbike.

They reportedly assaulted him, threw petrol over him and set him on fire when they found out that he was Christian.

He sustained burns to 55 percent of his body and died in hospital on Wednesday.
 
Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW , said: "We extend our heartfelt condolences to Noman Masih's family and reiterate our call for the perpetrators of this deplorable attack to be apprehended.

"A culture of impunity must end if religious minorities are to be guaranteed their rights as citizens in Pakistan."

And Wilson Chaudhry, from the British Pakistani Christian Association, told Premier's News Hour: "Christians are terrified. They're hiding in their homes, locking themselves in. There'll be protests today, I'm sure.

"They will continue to go to their churches, they will continue to pray, they will continue to have faith that God will protect them, but one way or the other, something has to be done to resolve this.

"... the police... don't really want to protect Christians, they see them as an anathema, as a community that is wasteful, and this stems from poor education.

"A consequence of this is that people are easily led by rogue imams that preach hatred in mosques, and this intolerance has grown because of a demonisation and a caricaturing of Christians and other minorities in the national curriculum textbooks of Pakistan.

"Until they start to promote the great sacrifice our communities have made that have helped develop Pakistan, we will always be seen as something outside the norm, as an inferior race or an inferior culture within Pakistan.

"That's something that has to stop now. So change those textbooks - what a great start that would be."

Listen to Wilson Chaudhry speaking to Premier's Hannah Tooley on the News Hour:

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