LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Monday, remanded in custody four people accused of killing the Christian couple Shama and Shehzad, for alleged blasphemy, officials said.

Shehzad Masih, a bonded labourer, and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi were beaten by a mob of 1,500 people then thrown on top of a lit brick furnace last week in a crazed reaction to rumours that they had thrown pages of the Holy Quran into the garbage.

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The horrific incident took place on November 4 in the tiny hamlet of Chak 59 (village 59) near the town of Kot Radha Kishan, 60 kilometres (40 miles) southwest of Lahore.

It has sparked protests across the country by Christians and outrage among rights activists. Police have arrested more than 40 suspects.

“The police produced four suspects in anti-terrorism court and the judge remanded them into police custody for further interrogation till November 19," a prosecution official told AFP.

Also read: No mercy for murderers of Christian couple, says PM

He said 39 more suspects were already in jail, out of a total of some 60 suspects named in the lynching of the Christian couple.

Some 900 students from Lahore's missionary schools staged a demonstration outside Lahore Press Club against the murders.

Protesters shouted "We want justice!" and "Stop killing minorities!" as they carried placards and banners, including one which read “Death penalty for the killers of Shehzad and Shama."

Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in the country, with even unproven allegations often prompting mob violence.Those who take part in the violence are rarely if ever prosecuted, a fact not lost upon the relatives of the deceased.

50 villagers held

Police arrested last week 50 villagers who were part of a mob which reportedly burnt alive a Christian couple in a brick kiln in Kot Radha Kishan for allegedly desecrating pages of the Holy Quran. The woman, mother of three, was pregnant.

Kasur District Police Officer Jawad Qamar confirmed the arrests and said a local religious leader had fanned the issue. But the DPO did not disclose his name.

Police and witnesses told Dawn that announcements had been made from mosques on Tuesday asking villagers to gather at the Yousaf brick kiln where 25-year-old Shama and her husband Shahzad Masih worked as bonded labourers.

Over 1,000 charged people from three villages took out the couple from a room (where they had taken shelter) after tearing apart its roof. The mob tortured the couple before putting them into the kiln’s furnace.

The mob held hostage five policemen who tried to rescue the couple. The villagers also manhandled some media personnel and snatched their cameras.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the incident and the latter constituted a three-member committee comprising the secretary of minority affairs, chairman of CM’s inspection team and additional IG to investigate the matter.

There are about 12 houses of the Christian community in Chak 59 and all the residents had left the village when this correspondent reached there on Wednesday. The local Muslim population also left the villages because police were raiding their houses.