Pakistan Supreme Court Acquits All Men Convicted in Burning of Christian Couple

Pakistan's Supreme Court overturned the final death sentences in the 2014 killing of Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi on July 9, 2026, leaving no one convicted for the murders.

The couple were falsely accused of desecrating the Quran before a mob of more than 1,000 people beat them and burned them alive in a brick kiln in Kot Radha Kishan, Punjab Province.

A three-member bench led by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan concluded that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The court cited significant inconsistencies in police records, witness statements, and testimony from the victims' relatives.

Among the specific failures: the victims' heirs could not clearly describe the roles of the accused individuals in the attack. The name of one key defendant, Muhammad Irfan, who was alleged to have pushed the couple into the kiln, was absent from the initial police report and supplementary statements. During cross-examination, the victims' family also admitted that the brick kiln owner named in the original report was not present during the attack.

The court also dismissed an appeal by the Punjab provincial government against the earlier acquittal of 102 other defendants by the Lahore High Court.

Police had registered cases against 660 suspects after the attack. By 2016, an anti-terrorism court sentenced five men to death and eight others to two years in prison. Higher courts gradually overturned those convictions over the following decade.

Christian leaders and human rights advocates, including the National Commission for Justice and Peace, expressed deep disappointment. Bishop Samson Shukardin and Bishop Indrias Rehmat said the outcome discourages victims from seeking justice, as the legal system frequently fails to hold perpetrators accountable for violence against religious minorities.