Pakistan: Father Faces Death Threat from Son's Killers
Jan 03 2006
Postings >> Pakistan

A man whose son was tortured to death by Muslim seminary students has asked for police protection after receiving death threats from those he accuses of his son's death.

Pervez Masih from Punjab made his appeal for protection to the judge in the trial of Ghulam Rasool who is accused of torturing Masih's son, Javed Anjum, to force him to convert to Islam.

Islamists have been trying to persuade Masih to drop charges since Rasool had his bail revoked recently. On three occasions, clerics armed with pistols have gathered outside the courtroom in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab, to threaten and jostle Masih and his lawyer Khalil Tahir Sindhu.

Rasool had been granted bail in December 2004, at the start of a trial now entering its 21st month.

Rasool was a Muslim prayer leader and security guard at the madrassa (or Islamic school) where Anjum was kidnapped and tortured in April 2004. In a statement on his death bed, the 19-year-old said he had been seized as he drank from a tap outside the seminary and then tortured for five days to force his conversion.

Representatives of the madrassa eventually took Anjum to the police to accuse him of trying to steal a water pump. Police immediately called Pervez Masih to tell him his son needed hospital treatment. Anjum died of his injuries in Faisalabad's Allied Hospital on May 2, 2004.

The next hearing in the case was scheduled for Monday January 2. At the time of writing, the court had taken no action to protect Masih and his lawyer.

President Musharraf has launched a crackdown on madrassas after it emerged that one of the London bombers on July 7 had spent time at such a seminary in Pakistan. However, radical Islamist parties such as the Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) have reacted angrily to attempts to
purge madrassas of fanatical elements.

• Pray for Pervez Masih and his family, trying to seek justice for their son Javed in very difficult circumstances. Pray that they will be successful in their quest.
• Pray that President Musharraf will stand up to radical politicians and persist in trying to wipe out fanatical elements from Pakistan's religious seminaries.