Continued Prayer Requested for Christian Schoolmaster (Pakistan)
June 28, 2001
The Voice of the Martyrs requests that Christians around the world continue to pray for Pervez Masih, a 35-year-old Christian schoolmaster in Pakistan charged on April 1 with blasphemy against Mohammed under Pakistan’s blasphemy law section 295/ C. Since his arrest, he has been tortured and is imprisoned in a 6-ft X 4-ft cell. The daytime temperature in the cell exceeds 50 degrees centigrade. He cannot come out of his room and walk. Once a week, he is taken out to meet his relatives. He sleeps on the hard floor on a mat next to the toilet. In May he told visitors that police have beaten him, as they demand that he convert to Islam.
Parvez Masih was charged with blasphemy when Mohammad Ibrahim complained to police that he had heard from two students that Masih had uttered blasphemous words against the Prophet Mohammed during a lesson earlier in the year. Ibrahim operates a private Muslim high school that he founded almost two years ago in the same vicinity as the private school that Masih founded and has operated for 15 years in Chailayke village. Local sources suggest that Ibrahim has been seeking various means of closing the rival school and that this accusation of blasphemy against Masih should be seen in this light.
Please uphold this dear brother in your prayers. Pray that his next appeal for bail will be successful. Pray that this brother will be released from these inhumane conditions and freed from the false charges laid against him.
Voice of the Martyrs. Used with Permission.