Christian Woman in Pakistan Dies after Being Set on Fire

A Christian woman in Pakistan died on Sunday night (April 22) after a Muslim in the Sialkot area set her on fire for refusing to convert to Islam and marry him, relatives said.

 

Muhammad Rizwan Gujjar poured kerosene on 25-year-old Asma Yaqoob and set her on fire on Wednesday (April 17), resulting in burns on 80 percent of her body, sources said.

 

She and her father, Yaqoob Masih, and her brother Maqsood were at the house where she worked as a domestic worker for Saeeduz Zaman in the Mohalla Pakpura area when the attack took place, according to a police report.

 

Masih, a resident of Mohalla Bogara near Hajipura, stated in the police First Information Report (FIR 171/18) that he and his son had gone to Zaman’s house at 11 p.m. to meet Asma and inquire after the health of Zaman’s ailing mother.

 

“We were sitting in a room when there was a knock on the front gate,” he said. “Asma went out to see who had come, when after some time we heard her screaming in pain. Zaman, Maqsood and I rushed outside to see what had happened and saw the accused Rizwan Gujjar fleeing from the scene while Asma was engulfed in flames.”

 

At Sialkot Civil Hospital, Asma Yaqoob told them that Gujjar had been pressuring her to marry him for some time, but that she had turned him down because she did not want to recant her Christian faith, Masih stated in the FIR.

 

Asma…