Pakistan indicts 106 in burning of Christians

LAHORE, Pakistan, May 21 (UPI) -- Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Court indicted 106 suspects Thursday, in the death of a Christian couple who were burned alive in a brick kiln.

A challan, or statement of charges, submitted in a Lahore court said three Muslim clerics are accused of inciting a mob of about 400 to attack Sajjad Mesih and his pregnant wife Shama in 2014, after burned pages of the Koran were found near their home. The two were beaten, then burned in a brick-making kiln in the town of Kot Radha Kishen, where they were employed as laborers.

The clerics, the charge sheet said, were involved in provocative speech against the impoverished couple. The mob demanded Masih and his wife convert to Islam or face consequences for committing blasphemy. Witnesses told the British Broadcasting Corp. the couple was locked in a room overnight and later attacked with shovels by the mob before they were placed in the kiln.

It is believed 32 suspects are still at large.

The case worried Pakistan's Christians, a small minority in a country in which blasphemy is a sensitive issue.