Pakistan Police Torture Christians Arrested in Islamic Attack

Lahore: October 24, 2009, (PCTV Newsdesk)

Two Christians in Gojra, Pakistan who allegedly fired warning shots as an Islamist mob approached which eventually resulted in seven Christians being burned to death on Aug.. 1 have told Compass Direct News (www.compassdirect.org) that they were tortured after police arrested them.

The Compass story said that only one of the hundreds of Muslim assailants responsible for burning at least 50 homes is in jail for the fire assault on Gojra’s Christian Town, but sources said Islamists have provided police a “pretense” for arresting the two Christian brothers who gave shelter to 300 people.

Naveed Masih, 32, alias Fauji (“the Soldier”) and his 25-year-old brother Nauman Masih were arrested on Sept. 2 and Sept. 7 respectively for “rioting with deadly weapons and spreading terror with firing,” although the latter has been released on bail.

From his jail cell, Naveed Masih told Compass that he and his brother were taken to the Police Training Centre in Choong, where they were kept in illegal detention for 18 days. Police kept them hungry for days, he said; when they asked for food, officers told them to confess that they had fired weapons, he added. Naveed Masih also said police tortured them to try to force them to say they had links with terrorist organizations that provided arms and ammunition to them.

“Sometimes we were hung in a dark well while our faces were covered with a cloth,” Naveed Masih said. “They beat me with cane sticks on the back of my hands and sometimes hung me upside down and then brutally beat me.”