Catholic father murdered while on pilgrimage to Marian shrine in Pakistan

Marian shrine in Mariamabad, Pakistan. / Credit: Agenzia Fides, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 16, 2025 / 17:42 pm (CNA).

Men on motorcycles murdered a father and injured a 16-year-old boy while they were taking part in a pilgrimage to the national Marian shrine of the Virgin Mary in Mariamabad in Pakistan, an incident that has shocked Christians in the Muslim-majority country.

According to the Vatican news agency Fides on Sept. 12, Afzal Masih, a married father of four, was murdered on Sept. 7 while he was on a pilgrimage to the shrine located in the Archdiocese of Lahore.

“We are deeply saddened by the murder of Afzal Masih. He was a devout Catholic who was participating in a Marian pilgrimage to venerate and pray to the Virgin Mary. Today, we express our deepest condolences to his family,” Father Tariq George, rector of the shrine, told Fides.

The murder occurred while Afzal Masih was traveling with 15 other members of the faithful and several young men on motorcycles approached the minibus and began to provoke the group. 

When the pilgrims stopped at a gas station 19 miles from the shrine, a man identified as Muhammad Waqas opened fire with a rifle, killing Afzal Masih with a shot to the neck and wounding his 16-year-old cousin, Harris Masih, in the arm.

Afzal Masih was taken to the hospital but died. After his arrest, Waqas told police that he “had no intention of killing.”

Christians in Pakistan are calling for an investigation into the case and for justice to be done.

The Marian shrine celebrated its annual feast Sept. 5–8, bringing together some 500,000 Catholic and other Christian faithful as well as Muslims and Hindus.

Despite the rains and floods, said Father Qaisar Feroz, communications officer for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, the faithful weren’t stopped from coming to the Marian shrine.

Mariamabad, founded in 1893 by Capuchin missionaries, includes a Marian grotto inspired by the Lourdes grotto in France. It was declared a national shrine in 1949.

Pakistan, with a population of over 241 million, is 96% Muslim, while Christians make up just 1.4% of the country, or about 3.3 million people.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.