A misquoted story of a Christian teenager who was allegedly lynched in Burewala district of Punjab shocked human rights activists across the country but police sources and parents of teen tell a different story.
Though Pakistan, a majority Muslim state is battling the allegations from supporting extremism to forced conversions but another incident was used by specific elements over last weekend to create a divide between Christians and Muslims co-existing peacefully in the country.
The incident relates to the death of Sharoon Masih,17 who was a student of 9th Grade and lost his life in Burewala city of Punjab over a petty skirmish in class.
Initially, it was revealed that Sharoon was lynched to death by his Muslim class fellows as he was attending his class at ‘MC Model Boys Government High School Burewala’ last week.
The reason for the killing was believed to be xenophobic and it was alleged that Sharoon faced a discrimination owing to his faith prior to his death.
It was also widely propagated that the Christian student was lynched by a group of Muslim students in the school, contrary to the facts.
According to the details available with Daily Pakistan, there was no such element of ethnic or religious animosity behind the death of Sharoon and it all triggered due to a trivial class skirmish.
The father of Sharoon, Elyab while in a telephonic conversation with this scribe described that his son tried to walk through the class room where one of his class fellows was sitting with his legs stretched that became an impetus for the conflict.
Assistant Sub-Inspector Zulfiqar Ali threw weight behind Elyab and confirmed that there was no religious element involved in Sharoon’s death.
According to the FIR lodged on Aug 30, the day Sharoon passed away, one of the students Hamid Raza who alongwith another boy was fighting with Sharoon, kicked him in the belly due to which he fell on the ground.
‘The Christian student was then taken to the hospital where the doctors pronounced him dead’ said the police officer and added that the accused Hamid was sent to judicial remand and would be presented before the area magistrate on Saturday.
When pressed further whether Sharoon was killed for his faith, Zulfiqar replied with a NO and added that not even the parents of deceased mentioned any such thing in the complaint.
He further added that the police was conducting inquiry into the incident but was waiting for post mortem report which would further clear the air.
Describing the overall situation of Yaqoobabad town, where Sharoon attended his school, the policemen claimed that the overall situation was pretty good and there was no incident of such kind in past as well.
‘A sizeable majority of Christians reside in the area and neither the plaintiff nor the local community complained about any discrimination’ noted Zulfiqar Ali who signed the FIR regarding Sharoon’s death.
Zulfiqar also maintained that the elected representatives of Christian community including the local counsellor did not file complaints regarding the lynching, as ‘misquoted’ on social media.
It bears mentioning that as soon as Sharoon passed away, a few websites claiming to be advocating Christians rights in Pakistan, peddled the narrative that the shining star Sharoon was abused, bullied and finally killed intentionally.
A few Twitterati also apparently added fuel to the fire and called upon the international organizations to take notice of discrimination in the country.
Nonetheless, it is visibly evident that Sharron did lose his life after a fight with his Muslim friends, even then religion was not the decisive factor in this regard.
