Pakistani Christian couple locked in a factory and beaten to death for throwing out a dead relative's Koran.

A Pakistani labourer and his pregnant wife killed for alleged blasphemy were locked inside a brick-making factory before their murder to prevent them from fleeing their debts, relatives said today.

Shehzad Masih and Shama Bibi - who was four months pregnant and a mother to three children - were then beaten, surrounded by a 1,500 strong crowd and thrown on top of a brick kiln, witnesses said.

The killing was sparked by the mob's belief the couple had desecrated a copy of the Koran. By the time the attack was over, only charred bones and the couple's discarded shoes remained.

The gruesome incident took place yesterday in the tiny hamlet of Chak 59 near Kot Radha Kishan town, 60 kilometres southwest of Lahore.

See photo of the Christian couple Shama Bibi (left) and Shehzad Masih, who were murdered in Pakistan after a mob accused them of desecrating a copy of the Koran

A man/Police surveys the site of the brick kiln where the Christian couple were murdered yesterday

The killing has sparked protests by Christians and outrage among rights activists, while police have arrested 44 suspects.

Jawad Qamar, a local police official, has now explained that local suspicions of blasphemy unfolded more than a week earlier with the death of Shehzad's father, a local religious healer.

Source

Members of Pakistan's Christian community protest the couple's murder in Islamabad