Source: Jubilee Campaign, January 30, 2020
It has been a five-year-long ordeal, with lack of food, poor living conditions, and abuse in prison, with two of the 42 suspects dying in custody in 2017. After five years however, the Youhanabad Christians are finally released [after being acquitted by the Lahore Anti-Terrorism Court].
[The] forty Pakistani Christians [have] been on trial for the murder of two men during a violent protest following Easter suicide attacks on two churches in Youhanabad [which left 17 dead and 80 wounded]. Two others, arrested with them, have already died, allegedly due to a lack of access to medical treatment.
Following the [2015] attack, Christians took to the streets to protest. The crowd collectively determined that the two suspects were responsible for the bombings.
While there are many interpretations of the event circulating in the news, one of which stated that Christian protestors killed these two suspects… Witnesses reported that the suspects were actually killed by a Muslim radical to stoke violence.
Regardless, the Punjab Chief Minister filed three First Information Reports which placed collective blame on Christians for the death of Hafiz and Barber and permitted police officials in Lahore to trespass—at random—into the homes of Christians which led to the arrest of the 42 Christian men who they then transferred to prisons where they have remained since 2015 until their release on January 29, 2020.
» See also 40 Pakistani Christians Freed After Almost Five Years in Prison on Trial for “Terrorism” (World Watch Monitor). It reports the acquittal came on the same day well-known Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi published her biography (in French).