“Great dismay” at the killing of two young Christians in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in July was expressed by the World Council of Churches’ general secretary Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit in letters to Pakistan’s president and prime minister.
Pastor Rashid Emmanuel and his brother Sajid Emmanuel were shot dead on court premises by unidentified gunmen when they were taken there by police to face a charge of blasphemy against Islam.
Tveit appealed to the Pakistani authorities “to ensure immediate and necessary actions to bring to justice those who are responsible.”
He also reiterated concern that the “misuse of the blasphemy law in Pakistan has led to physical violence, damage, destruction of properties and loss of life.”
Pakistan’s blasphemy law provides for a mandatory death sentence or life imprisonment even for unintentional blasphemy offences. — ENI
