On 13 January Model Town police station, Lahore registered a blasphemy case under section 295 -A, B and C, Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which has a mandatory death penalty, against two young Christians, Haroon Ayub Masih and Salamat Mansha Masih.

The complainant Haroon Ahmad said in his statement that while he was in the Model Town Park with his friends Harris Khalid, Zakir Ali and Zulqarnain, two Christian boys approached them and introduced themselves as Haroon Ayub and Salamat Mansha and handed over a copy of a Christian booklet “Water of Life” and started preaching about Christianity.

They further said that the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had strayed on the path of religion while Christ had never married and continued His preaching while their prophet had got married to extend his line.    

Ahmad further told the police that the men further said the Bible is the true book while the Holy Quran is not a true book. He claimed Mansha Masih repeated this sentence, hurting their religious feelings. Ahmad said such words against Islam and their disrespect of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is an act of terrorism and intentionally committing a blasphemy against Islam and the prophet (PBUH), therefore a case should not just be registered against Haroon and Mansha but the whole group involved in distributing this literature should be arrested and also this whole blasphemous literature should be confiscated.   

The police arrested Salamat Mansha while Haroon Ayub escaped, and the whole family has gone into hiding.