By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
ISLAMABAD (Worthy News)-- Police in Pakistan said that the Christian couple tortured and murdered this month over accusations that the wife desecrated the Koran were false, according to Morning Star News.
A Muslim mob tore the clothes off Shama and Shahzad Masih, broke their legs and then dragged them behind a tractor into a burning brick kiln. But Shama was illiterate and could not have even known if Quranic verses were among the debris that she had burned. And under Pakistan's blasphemy statutes, intent must be demonstrated for a conviction of desecrating the Quran.
"She was not guilty of blasphemy," Kasur District Police Capt. Jawad Qamar told Morning Star News.
At a press conference in Islamabad, family members said Islamists have offered them land and money as compensation for the murders in an attempt to stop the investigation. And though police have reportedly arrested 50 men named in a First Information Report, relatives of the murdered couple said that influential Muslims were threatening to force the family to reach an agreement with the killers.
Shahzad Masih's brother, Shahbaz Masih, asked for government protection of his remaining family as well as the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the mob's actions.
"All we want is a fair investigation of the case," said Shahbaz.
The family also wants all the investigation's findings to be made public and has urged the Supreme Court to order an independent inquiry into the attack.