Photo: Wikimedia / Sarwanmemon.muet (cc)
Shail Masih and his twin brother Rahil were celebrating at a village fair on August 26th. Along with many other community members, the 18-year-old Christian brothers went on a carnival ride and threw fake currency notes into the crowd. Unfortunately, it was discovered that some of the slips of paper thrown by the participants contained Quranic verses. It was assumed by those present that the young Christian men were the ones responsible, leading to the arrest of their mother and grandfather.
The arrested family members were released from custody when the twin brothers arrived at the police station. The complainant, Ghulam Mustafa, alleged that Shail and Rahil were making TikTok videos while throwing the scraps of paper. However, as the brothers are illiterate and come from an impoverished family, they would not have known what was written on any of the papers. One report suggests that either they or someone else may have inadvertently torn pages from a Quranic booklet.
The brothers have since been arrested and charged with blasphemy. While many blasphemy charges in Pakistan result from personal or business disputes, sometimes issues can arise as a result of ignorance or illiteracy. For more details on the problems encountered by Christians in Pakistan, go to our country report.
Pray that the truth will come to light in this legal case, so these unassuming young men can be released from custody. In the meantime, please remember their Christian family in your prayers, asking our Heavenly Father to provide His peace, strength and encouragement, as well as divine protection, while they deal with the aftermath of the accusations. May followers of Christ throughout Pakistan, who are frequently subjected to various forms of severe oppression because of their faith in Christ, continue to hold steadfastly onto their identity as children of God.
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