On October 9, 2008, a Christian Family was attacked by the Local Muslims of the Village No-57 of Tehsil Chak Jhumra – Faislabad. Gulsher Masih and his 20 year-old daughter Ashyana Gulsher (Known as Sundal Bibi) were falsely accused of committing Blasphemy against Islam.
Masih and his daughter were charged under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code for blaspheming the Quran. Before charges were filed in October 2008, Gulsher stated that an incident took place on Aug. 25, when Ashyana found some burned pages of the Quran in a garbage dump outside their community.
He said he had handed the burnt pages to two women, Lubana Taj, and Khalida Rafiq. However, after few days Khalida Rafiq and Gulsher’s wife Surraiya Bibi had a clash over some minor subject. Khalida accused Gulsher and his daughter of tearing the pages of the Quran. She also accused Gulsher’s children of making paper airplanes out of the pages of the Quran.
The conflict was defused with the help of our neighbors who knew the truth, he said, and local Muslim cleric Amam Hafiz Muhammad Ali also intervened, saying the Gulshers’ daughter had done a good act.
The Gulsher Family
But on October 8, 2008, different mosques started announcing from the loud speaker that the Christian Family had committed Blasphemy against the Quran and within no time, hundreds of Muslims gathered outside of their home and set it on fire.
Police came on the spot and arrested Gulsher and his daughter Ashyana (Sundal Bibi). The next day they registered FIR against them. Hundreds of Muslims demanded police hand over Gulsher and his daughter so they could be hanged publicly.
Gulsher Stated that “If on that day those Christian members of the parliamentary assembly had spoken up, then the police complaint wouldn’t have been registered against me.”
After fourteen months in jail, Gulsher and his daughter were found not guilty and set free but Gulsher and his family were still unable to move about freely in public. Initially, few NGOs supported them. Gulsher Stated that, “I cannot go back to my home village; my children are suffering and I am living a miserable life.”
And Now Rescue Christians has taken his case and we have started supporting Gulsher and her family.