CASE STUDY TORTURED WITH NAILS — ALL FOR A MOBILE PHONE
Requesting anonymity for fear of reprisals, Christian lawyers working on the case said the torture Kashif suffered reflected an attitude of contempt for non- Muslims. One lawyer said: “What Kashif suffered at the hands of these men revealed a mindset in which Christians are held in contempt. They would never treat a Muslim so badly.” Community accounts say that the attack on Kashif, who worshipped with his family at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Sialkot, had an underlying religious motive. They noted that, at the time, few, if any, other Christians worked for Mr. Irfan. Condemning the attack, minority rights activist Joseph Janssen told Christian news outlet AsiaNews that Kashif’s death was not “an isolated incident” and was part of a pattern of mafia-style violence, religious persecution and state negligence.
“They didn’t just beat him… they nailed him.”
Struggling to hold back tears, Riyasat Masih described how his brother, Kashif, was tortured to death at the farm where he worked near Sialkot, Pakistan. After discovering him severely injured on the roadside in the small hours of the morning of May 12, 2025, Riyasat recalled how, shortly before taking his dying breath, his brother told him that fellow laborers at the farm where he worked had hammered nails into his limbs and beaten him with iron rods. Kashif, 35, had been accused of stealing the mobile phone of his employer, former police officer Malik Irfan. An initial police report included evidence that Kashif was tortured to extract a confession. Desperate to find the phone, Riyasat said that at 2.30 a.m. his brother’s accusers forced entry into the family home in Jamkay Cheema village but came away without the device. Riyasat said he then received a tip-off from a neighbor that Kashif had been abandoned on the roadside and so set off in search of him. As day broke, he found his brother “badly bruised with blood gushing out from several parts of his body." Photographs said to be of Kashif’s remains show a corpse with burn marks, gashes and bloodied holes on his body. An autopsy report purportedly found that the marks were consistent with wounds from nails and hot metal rods including scorch marks, bruising and cracked ribs. A human rights lawyer dealing with the case told ACN: “Sadly, it is not uncommon for Christians to suffer persecution in Pakistan but never have I seen such horrible and heart-wrenching violence carried out against someone.”
Mr. Irfan was arrested but the other accused were released on bail. The case is ongoing.
Sources ACN sources including human rights activists in Pakistan. “Muslims Torture Christian to Death in Pakistan, Brother Says,” Morning Star News , May 14, 2025 https://morningstarnews. org/2025/05/muslims-torture-christian-to-death-in-pakistan- brother-says/ Shafique Khokhar, “35-year-old Christian tortured and killed, Activists: ‘Not an isolated case’," AsiaNews , May 17, 2025 https:// www.asianews.it/news-en/35-year-old-Christian-tortured-and- killed.-Activists:-Not-an-isolated-case-63108.html#google_vignette “‘They Nailed His Legs for a Phone’: A Christian Laborer’s Final Cry in Pakistan,” Voice of Pakistan Minority , May 19, 2025 https://voiceofpakistanminorityblog.home.blog/2025/05/19/ they-nailed-his-legs-for-a-phone-a-christian-laborers-final-cry- in-pakistan/ [All sites accessed 07/10/26]
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