Gobera Bashir, 27, suffered burns on 40% of his body after the attack. He had become a Christian the previous Sunday when attending church with a friend. The pastor had told him to ‘be cautious when reading the Bible, since your family is Muslim’.

Four days later he was reading the Bible in his room when his younger sister asked why he was doing this. The news spread from there. ‘As they entered the house, they found me in the sitting room and began tying me up and shouting, “Shame! Shame! You are bringing a bad omen to the family with your bad Christian religion. Our family is a Muslim family.” Then one of them poured a hot liquid from a thermos flask on me, and then they dragged me out of the house,’ said Bashir. They took him to a nearby swamp where he lost consciousness. Christians from a nearby house took him in.

A Christian widow and her grown children looked after him when he had received hospital treatment. His family discovered the home where he had taken refuge, and he was taken to another location.