Church of Pakistan Confirms Death of Christian Couple

The Church of Pakistan has confirmed that a young Christian couple was savagely beaten and burned over rumors that they ripped out pages of the Quran and burned them.

Raheel Sharoon, development officer of the Diocese of Raiwind, confirmed to the Episcopal News Service this week that 24-year-old Shama Bibi and 27-year-old Sajjad Maseeh, a Christian couple living in the Punjab Province of Pakistan, were beaten and burned to death under false rumors that they had burned pages of the Quran.

Sharoon told the media outlet that the couple actually owed a debt to the brick factory they worked for, and because they had not paid the debt, the factory's owner began to spread rumors that the couple had burnt pages of the Quran to spark public outrage.

"The real story is that the owner of brick kiln, Yousaf Gujjar, lent some money to the couple and when he asked for the money to be returned there was a confrontation since a majority of brick kiln workers cannot return their loans in cash, but do it by working at the brick kiln. After which he started spreading rumors of desecration of the Quran," Sharoon told the Episcopal News Service.

The couple was reportedly burned by a vicious mob, who placed the couple's body on a kiln in the brick factory.

Another rumor regarding the couple's death suggested a garbage collector had seen Bibi throwing burned papers in the trash and mistook them for pages of the Quran.

"[Bibi] threw the ashes on a garbage heap outside their quarters when Muhammad Irfan, a Muslim co-worker, noticed some half-burnt pieces of paper from the amulets and raised a clamor, claiming that Shahzad's family had desecrated Quranic pages," an unnamed family member told Morning Star News.