The victim is Boota Masih, 62 years old. He was forced to work in a cattle ranch to pay off his son’s debts. The killer is the owner of the agricultural company, a Muslim who is also a policeman. He took advantage of his official role to cover up the investigation. The body showed clear signs of abuse and violence.
Faisalabad () – New case of impunity and brutal violence against minorities in Pakistan. It is a story that summarizes all the distortions, abuses and outrages in a nation where non-Muslims struggle to assert their rights. Even when it is clear that it is a homicide, the police – either because the main suspect is also an officer – have done nothing to arrest those responsible.
The victim is a 62-year-old Christian man, Boota Masih (in the photo), brutally murdered on August 26 in Chak 226RB, a district of Faisalabad (Punjab). Since July, the man had replaced his son Sohail in a cattle ranch owned by Muslim Fakhar Cheema. The young man had suddenly absconded, leaving unpaid part of the money that he had previously received from his employer. The agricultural businessman -and policeman- decided to retaliate against his father, according to the principle of “binding work”, better known as “debt bondage”.
Fakhar Cheema and Shaan Cheema forcibly seized and forced the father to work on the farm, subjecting him to harassment and abuse for weeks. On August 23, two other sons of the old Christian man, Rafaqat Masih and Ashfaq Masih, tried to join his father and take him home, but to no avail. The two were able to see with their own eyes the conditions of extreme physical and psychological suffering in which the man found himself.
Afaqat and Ashfaq attempted to initiate mediation with the employer to secure the father’s release, but the businessman Fakhar Cheema steadfastly refused and made further threats. Three days later, the children received a phone call from the Saddar police station, informing them that their father’s body had been found near the farm, in a state described as “miserable” and left for more than 24 hours in a field. of cultivation. When the two brothers recognized the body of their elderly father, they suffered “a real shock”, due to the signs of violence and mistreatment that the body presented in various places.
Police have opened a case against the Muslim farming family on multiple charges, but so far the investigation is stalled – in part due to the main suspect’s pressure on his colleagues. The victim’s family has received repeated death threats. Therefore, one of the relatives decided to turn to the Voice of Pakistan, an NGO that also defends the rights of minorities, in an attempt to obtain justice and end impunity. Zohaib Newton, executive director of the organization, confirms the details of the case and speaks of a “brutal murder” that is one more example “of the violation of the rights of minorities in Pakistan”. “People subjected to slave labor,” he adds, “are in miserable conditions and are mistreated by landowners. However, when it comes to minorities, vulnerability is doubled” and that is why “the government must intervene” to combat the phenomenon. .
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