A 22-year-old Christian in Kasur district, Pakistan died after a group of Muslims attacked and tortured him for using a tube-well to wash himself and making the water unclean, reports from International Christian Concern (ICC) say.
Saleem Masih was a day laborer and worked in Sher Dogar's land in Bhagiyana village. On February 25, early in the morning, Saleem went to wash himself in the nearby tube-well after he unloaded the chaff in the fields.
Looking at Saleem washing himself in the water, Dogar and six other Muslims dragged him out of the water and started hitting him.
According to Saleem's uncle, Waris Masih, the Muslims abused and tortured Saleem for polluting the Muslims water. "They got aggressive because a 'Choora' (a derogatory term used to denote Pakistani Christians as unclean) dared to make their water unclean. They claimed this would make their entire crop filthy," Waris told ICC.
According to reports, Saleem was dragged into Dogar's cattle farm, chained and tortured for almost two hours.
One of Saleem's relatives told that Dogar and six other Muslims beat and rolled over iron rods on Saleem and tortured him with electric shocks. The incident left Saleem with multiple fractures in ribs and his left arm.
On the same night, police called Saleem's father Ghafoor Masih to the place of incident and the father rushed his son to the district hospital at first and later transferred him to Lahore General Hospital. The injuries were so severe that Saleem went to coma and died three days later on February 28.
"This incident has damaged my strength," the grieving father told ICC. "He was my child star and the face of the family. The culprits have killed him very brutally. I want justice for my son and punishment for the killers."
Mian Muhammad Abbas, a Muslim community leader condemned the attack and told ICC that Christians and Muslims have been living in this village together for over four decades. "We still want to live in peace. This village and country belong to every citizen and we are sad for Saleem Masih."
An FIR was registered against Dogar and others Muslims who attacked Saleem but according to local reports, the seven men were granted pre-arrest bail and released after being in custody for a short time.
