01/14/2019 Pakistan (International Christian Concern) – In November 2014, a young Christian couple in Pakistan was brutally murdered by a mob after being falsely accused of committing blasphemy. This terrible incident continues to haunt both the couple’s surviving children and Pakistan’s Christian community at large.

On November 4, 2014, Shehzad Masih and his pregnant wife, Shama, were accused of desecrating a Quran at the brick kiln where their family worked and lived in the village of Kot Radha Kishan. A mob of hundreds of enraged Muslims descended upon the brick kiln and surrounded a small building where the couple had taken shelter. The mob broke into the small building, beat the Christian couple, and burned them alive on the brick kiln.

News of the shocking incident quickly spread across Pakistan and the world.

Among the witnesses of this terrible incident were the Christian couple’s own children. In a recent interview with Dawn, relatives of Shehzad and Shama recounted how this event continues to haunt the children.

“Suleman had bad dreams for a long time,” Mukhtiar Masih, Shama’s father, told Dawn about the couple’s oldest son. “He would often wake up screaming for his parents.” To this day, the children’s guardians claim they are still apprehensive when meeting strangers.

Nothing will ever replace the loss of these children’s parents or erase the terrible trauma they experienced. This is why it is so important to keep the suffering of the persecuted, especially persecuted children, in our daily prayers.

For interviews, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: [email protected].