Authorities this week charged and jailed a Christian accused of blasphemy by Muslim business competitors, and police beat area Christians in their search for him, sources said.

Jamshed Masih told Morning Star News that local Muslims had entrapped his brother, 35-year-old Pervaiz Masih, in a false blasphemy case after he obtained a sand contract in Garra village, near Mandi Usmanwala in Kasur District, Punjab Province.

“We were unaware of the incident until the local Muslims, led by the village mosque’s Pesh Imam[prayer leader], started propagating on Tuesday [Sept. 1] that Masih had blasphemed against Islam’s prophet Muhammad during a discussion with some Muslims a couple of weeks ago,” Jamshed Masih said, adding that some 300 to 400 Muslims of the village and surrounding areas shouted chants against the Christians and vowed to avenge alleged “disrespect” of their prophet by burning his brother alive.

He said that Pervaiz Masih had obtained a contract for sand from a local dealer at a better price than that of his Muslim competitors, Haji Muhammad Jamshed and Haji Muhammad Bashir, and that since then they had nurtured a grudge against him. Jamshed and Bashir on Tuesday (Sept. 1) began spreading word that Pervaiz Masih had disrespected Muhammad, he said. Read more