E/CN.4/1995/91/Add.1 page 57 burning and desecrating the Koran. Although the book which was the object of the complaint was never found, the following week Bhatti Sarvar was finally handed over to the police by his family because they feared that his detractors would end up killing him. On the day when he appeared before the chairman of the municipal committee, 11 representatives of the local Christian community and some 100 Muslim leaders, together with a vociferous crowd of about 2,000 Muslims congregated in the hall, demanding that Bhatti Sarvar should be hanged. Since his arrest, he has reportedly been due to appear at 11 hearings without a defence lawyer because the attempts made by his family to secure the services of four lawyers in Sarghar have been unsuccessful. Bhatti Sarvar was apparently preparing to plead guilty, despite the fact that the charges against him were false, in order to spare his family any unduly unpleasant consequences. Christians from the province of Sind were preparing to collect money to pay a lawyer from outside of Sarghar who would agree to defend the victim. It is also reported that three young Christians, Rehmat Masih, Manzoor Masih and Salamat Masih (the latter only 11 years of age) were arrested for having scrawled defamatory inscriptions on the walls of the Ratta Dhotran village mosque on 9 May 1993 - this despite the fact that two of them are illiterate - and that since then they are thought to have been held at the Gujranmala central prison, in the province of Punjab. These three young people, who were charged under section 295 C of the Penal Code, cannot be released on bail and risk capital punishment. It is also stated that these arrests occurred at a time when there were feelings of hostility and friction between Muslims and members of the Christian minority; the families of the victims were harassed, and a Christian church was attacked. To date, local lawyers have been reluctant to defend the accused. Lastly, it is alleged that the Hindus, another religious minority in Pakistan, have suffered serious violations of their right to freedom of religion, following the desecration and destruction of the Babri Mosque in India in December 1992. Over 120 Hindu temples and 2 Sikh gurdawaras (places of worship), as well as the same number of homes and shops, were sacked by the crowd. Some 600 families have been the victims of these attacks and scores of deaths have occurred. Furthermore, there has been a resurgence of hostility against the Hindus in Pakistan, who complain of various forms of discrimination, harassment and forced conversions to the Islamic faith." 20. On 8 February 1994 the Government of Pakistan addressed the following information to the Special Rapporteur: "Report on the state of the case concerning Mr. Gul Masih 1. Gul Masih, a resident of Chak No. 46/NB, Sargodha district, was accused of having made remarks defiling the sacred name of the Holy Prophet. Sajjad Hussain, the son of Rakim Bakhsh (the complainant), resident of the same village, reported the matter to the Police Station, Satellite Town, Sargodha, and criminal proceedings were therefore brought