A sewer cleaner named Irfan Masih succumbed to death in Civil Hospital Umerkot, yesterday due to negligence by a fasting Muslim doctor. Irfan Masih was cleaning a sewer early on Thursday morning when he fell down a manhole and became unconscious. Two other sewer cleaner workers who jumped to secure Irfan also passed out after inhaling toxic sewer gases.
One of them was rushed to Karachi’s Liaqat Hospital and is very serious while the other one is said to be stable.
Dr. Jaam Kunbhar has been arrested while the other two doctors, Dr. Yousuf and Dr. Allah Dad Rathore, may also soon get arrested in this case which has again shown the discrimination that the Christians face in the country.
Irfan Masih’s brother Pervaiz Masih told news channels that Dr. Yousuf had told him that “he would not touch Irfan’s dirty body until it was cleaned because he was fasting (for Ramazan).”
After this, a frantic Pervaiz Masih said that he himself cleaned his brother’s body, but then again, the oxygen pump which was sent for Irfan was empty. Sewer cleaner Irfan reportedly died on the floor of the hospital.
Anjum James Paul who is the Chairman of the Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association demanded justice for Sewer cleaner Irfan and said that a First Information Report must be logged against Dr. Jaam under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and he must be hanged for this his ‘deliberate negligence’.
In an earlier interview with Currentriggers.com, Paul has chronicled the persecution that the Pakistani minorities face.
It is also to be pointed out that Pakistani Muslims do not like to do sweeper/cleaning jobs as they are Muslims, and therefore, these jobs are de facto reserved for minorities like Christians.
