Early in the morning, on 11th January 2023, Allah Ditta
(55 yrs) began tending to his small guava farm in Okara Pakistan, which
he has leased from Muslim owners for a year.
Around 2pm three Muslim men entered the farm and began destroying
guava fruit on the farm. The culprits Usama, Intizar and Muhammad Awais
began plucking, tasting and throwing away unwanted fruit while they
digested the best produce. They also began trampling on fruit they did
not like, laughing and joking as they left their destruction in the well
kept guava orchard. The three men were known to the Christian family
because they had undertaken such theft and vandalism before, they were
from wealthy Muslim families and looked down on Christians and often
treated them harshly.
Allah Ditta along with his son Shahbaz Masih (30 yrs) at the time
were undertaking some routine care of their trees. Allah Ditta walked
across to the loud, loutish men and asked them not to waste away his
fruits, explaining they were owned by him, and that the fruit was not
ripe anyway as it was winter season.
On being approached by Allah Ditta the men became enraged, Intizar began verbally abusing Allah Ditta, he shouted:
“Your a Choora (filthy Chrristian)! “How dare you prohibit us from taking fruit from this farm!” “Grab him and kill him”
Usama then pulled out a pistol from the small of his back and shot
Allah Ditta in the chest. The culprits then shouted out to Shahbaz that
if he told the police about what happened that he and his family would
be killed. The men then ran away laughing and destroying more fruit as
they exited the crime scene.
Shahbaz who was tending to the trees some distance away ran towards
his father after watching Usama pull out a gun and hearing the bang of
the gun shot. When he arrived by his father’s side, there was a large
amount of blood on the floor, and all over Allah Ditta’s clothes. Allah
Ditta was not moving and he feared the worse.
Shahbaz told us that he began to weep inconsolably, he called out to
his father but was getting no response. He called emergency services
using the 911 service and requested emergency medical support. he then
called the Police emergency hotline on 15 and requested help describing
the shooting incident.
The medical rescue team arrived in minutes but on investigation they
gave the worst diagnosis for Shahbaz, explaining that his father was
dead. Police arrived 20 minutes later and investigated the crime
scene. After police had completed their investigation, Allah Ditta’s
body was put into an ambulance and taken to Civil Hospital Okara for a
postmortem.
Brother of Shahzad, Kashif Masih was asked to go to Renal Khurd
Police Station. After taking all the necessary details of the crime,
police registerd FIR No.28/23 against all three culprits under charges
34 and 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The next day, the Mr Ditta’s corpse was buried in a local Christian
graveyard. BACA visited the family on 13th January and attended the
memorial service.
Soobedar Masih, a first cousin of Allah Ditta, spoke with British Asian Christian Association, he said: “The police arrested Muhammad Intizar after raiding his home. “He confessed to the crime and police are now searching for Osama and Muhammad Awais. “We have been informed that an All Points Bulletin (APB) has been sent to national police forces.”
All three culprits belong to wealthy families and have strong
political connections. The father of Osama is a retired army officer and
he has already approached the family of Allah Ditta, offering apologies
for his son’s behaviour. He offered Soobedar Masih, 500,000 Rs (1757
Pounds) as compensatory bribe for the loss of the family’s patriarch.
The family of Allah Ditta have unanimously and outrightly refused his
bribe. However, the powerful position of the father of Usama places
them all in great danger and the family have asked for some protection.
A Muslim neighbour, Muhammad Abdul Ghufar, spoke with British Asian Christian Association, he said: “Allah Ditta was a very noble person. “He was the main bread-winner for his family, a great father and wonderful neighbour.
