World Watch Monitor | Oct. 26, 2018
Mentally impaired Yaqoob Bashir Masih was only 20 years old when he was accused of committing blasphemy in June 2015. He has been in prison ever since, and now his hometown District and Sessions Court in Mirpur Khas, a small district in Pakistan’s Sindh province, has sentenced him to life-long imprisonment for burning a booklet that contained verses of the Quran.
According to International Christian Concern, two appeals from the family to release him on bail were filed, but the trial court and later the Sindh High Court rejected them.
Masih, locally known by the name “Kala”, is known to have learning difficulties. After he was charged, Mushtaq Masih*, Yaqoob’s next-door neighbour in the Mehmoodabad area, told World Watch Monitor what happened:
“It was around 7pm and I was sitting with my wife on our camel cart. We were discussing how earning our daily living had become so tough when we started hearing the noise of a group of a people.