E/CN.4/2003/66 page 13 60. On 11 June 2002, Mohammed Yousaf Ali, a 55-year-old Muslim cleric convicted of blasphemy, was reportedly shot dead in the Kot Lakhpat Central Jail in Lahore by another prisoner, allegedly a member of Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP). 61. Allegedly, Mr. Yousaf Ali’s murder is not an isolated case and fears have been expressed that prisoners held on blasphemy and other religious charges could suffer the same fate. It has been reported that, in 2001 alone, at least 40 Muslims, 23 Ahmadis, 10 Christians and 2 Hindus were charged with blasphemy. 62. On 7 April 2002, a Presbyterian church in Satrah village, near Gujranwala district, was reportedly attacked by a group of Islamic extremists composed of seven youths aged between 14 and 25, armed with automatic weapons. Despite repeated requests from the Christian community, the local police and the Senior Superintendent were allegedly reluctant to file a first incident report. 63. In 2002, Lahore High Court Justice Nasara Javeed Iqbal reportedly ruled that 14-year-old Naira Nadia Masih, who was allegedly kidnapped, gang-raped by Muslim militants and forcibly converted to Islam, had voluntarily married one of her aggressors, Maqsood Ahmed Shiekh, despite concrete evidence proving that she was under age and therefore unable to marry or convert to another faith without parental consent. At the initial hearing, the district judge had reportedly nullified the marriage on the basis that, as a minor, the girl was unable to marry without the consent of her parents. 64. With regard to the communication concerning the attack carried out on 26 February 2002 in a Shi`ite mosque in Shah-Najam, Rawalpindi, during which 11 worshippers were killed and 14 others seriously wounded (above-mentioned report, paragraph 47), the Government of Pakistan sent the following reply to the Special Rapporteur on 7 October 2002: “The district police has nabbed the culprits in this case and they are on judicial remand. The case is under trial in the Anti-Terrorist Court No. 1 Rawalpindi and will be decided on completion of formalities.” Republic of Korea 65. Conscientious objectors have allegedly been routinely sentenced by military courts to three-year terms of imprisonment based on article 44 of the Military Penal Code and, more recently, by civil courts under provisions of the Military Service Act. As of December 2001, 1,640 conscientious objectors, most of them Jehovah’s Witnesses and some of them members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, are said to be serving their sentences in national prisons. They are said not to be permitted any religious activity, allegedly because they objected to military service on grounds of religious belief. 66. By letter dated 20 June 2002, the Government replied, inter alia, that a compulsory military service system was in accordance with its Constitution and relevant laws and that persons who fail to discharge the duty of military service shall be subject to criminal punishment. The Government considers the duty of national defence as constituting a valid limitation on the exercise of fundamental rights such as the right to freedom of conscience and