Lahore, Pakistan, Mar 19, 2011 / 15:58 pm
A Catholic man who died in a Pakistani prison while serving a life sentence for blasphemy might have been murdered by extremists, his supporters said.
While doctors said Qamar David, 55, died of a heart attack, the Catholic bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace suggested he might have “fallen prey to an active hate campaign going on in the country on this issue” at the hands of “extremist groups.”
Church leaders and human rights groups have called for an independent investigation of his death.
David, a wealthy businessman, was found dead on March 15. Both he and his lawyer received threats of violence regularly throughout the course of his time in prison and at nearly every court hearing in his case, a representative of Christian Solidarity Worldwide told Vatican Radio.