Lahore, Pakistan: According to his family, a Muslim neighbor shot and killed a Catholic father of four children last week after he protested their harassment of Christians in the neighborhood.

Marshall Masih, of the Patiala House area in Lahore, was the sole breadwinner for his elderly parents, wife, and four children—the oldest was 10, and the youngest was 18 months old. He was 29.

His sister, Goshi Yaqoob, 33, claimed that his family was sound asleep at 4:25 a.m. on July 10 when Muhammad Shani and Azam Ali led four armed Muslims into their home from the rooftop after cutting the iron grill.

“The assailants broke the door of my brother’s bedroom on the first floor of the house and held him and his family hostage at gunpoint,” Yaqoob told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

“They then opened indiscriminate fire on him, riddling his body with 16 bullets in the presence of his wife and minor children.”

Yaqoob was at her parents’ house. The sound of gunfire and the screams of her sister-in-law and children woke her up, and she rushed to their house, where she saw four men heading to the roof. She went to her brother’s bedroom.

“I was horrified to see his blood-soaked body lying on the floor while his wife and children were huddled in a corner crying frantically,” she said, breaking down in tears.

Neighbors awakened by the screams assisted the family in transporting the critically injured Masih to the hospital, where he succumbed to bleeding and wounds to his organs, she said.

Masih, known as Bunty, had filed a police complaint against Shani two and a half months ago after repeated, unsuccessful attempts to dissuade him and his cohorts from regular aerial firing in the area and harassing Christian women, she said.

The police found Shani in possession of illegal weapons, but they released him the following day, filing no charges.

Yaqoob said. “Instead, the police pressured my brother to stop pursuing the matter. The Muslims were offended that a Christian had taken a stand against their criminal activities, and by killing him in cold blood, they have shown that our lives do not matter.”

Christians protested outside the office of the Punjab Province chief minister the same day, demanding swift justice.

She voiced her frustration about our ignored pleas and the lack of arrests for the accused murderers.

Her father, a retired sanitation worker, is 75 and underwent heart surgery, and the family is concerned about the future of Masih’s children and young widow.

“My brother was the sole provider for the family, but with his untimely death, we are clueless as to how his young widow and four children will survive now,” she said. “Our entire world has crumbled after this incident.”

She appealed to the provincial government and Christians for support.

“We direly need help. My father’s meager pension cannot support the family, especially the education and wellbeing of the children, as well as the legal battle to bring the killers to justice,” she said. “I appeal to the government to give education scholarships to the children and urge my fellow Christians to help us in whatever way possible so that we can get justice from the courts.”

Masih ran a small grocery store out of his house and had an excellent reputation among the 20 Christian families living in the area for over three decades, his sister said.

“We are three sisters, and Masih was our only brother, the youngest of the four siblings,” she said. “He was a God-fearing Catholic who was diligent to provide a livelihood for our parents, both of whom are heart patients, and his family.”

Rise in Violence

Since the attacks on churches and homes in Jaranwala, there has been a surge in violent crimes against Christians in Pakistan.

Christians have been wrongly linked to attacks following the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas because of the Israel-Palestine conflict and their perceived support for Jews.

On November 9, Muhammad Zubair, a Muslim, shot and killed Farhan Ul Qamar, a 20-year-old Christian, in his home in Talwandi Inayat Khan village, Pasrur Tehsil of Sialkot District, Punjab Province, in front of his parents.

According to Qamar’s father, Zubair hated both Jews and Christians, calling the family members whom he angrily yelled at before he supposedly killed the Christian.

On February 5, Muslims shot and killed a 14-year-old Christian boy in the Mandiala Warraich neighborhood of Gujranwala District, Punjab Province, allegedly as a result of the Jaranwala incident.

The victim, Sunil Masih, was standing in the market with some family members when the assailants arrived on motorcycles.

They allegedly shouted that no Christian in the area should be left alive and opened fire, killing Masih on the spot while others barely saved their lives.

Like the previous year, Pakistan held the seventh spot on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List, highlighting the most challenging locations for Christians.