Last Updated: March 09, 2024, 00:03 IST
Supporters of the non secular and political get together TLP protest in opposition to what they are saying the blasphemous remarks by the chief justice of Pakistan, in Karachi, February 23, 2024. (Reuters)
A provincial court docket in Punjab stated he had shared blasphemous photos and movies with the intention to outrage the non secular emotions of Muslims
A Pakistani court docket has sentenced a 22-year-old scholar to loss of life for blasphemy over insulting WhatsApp messages about “Prophet Muhammad and his wives.”
A provincial court docket within the nation’s most populous area discovered him responsible of sharing blasphemous photos and movies supposed to outrage the non secular sentiments of Muslims, BBC reported. In the identical case, a 17-year-old acquired a life imprisonment sentence. Both defendants have denied the allegations.
Notoriously, blasphemy carries the loss of life penalty in Pakistan, with some people even lynched earlier than their trials. This Punjab province case comes lower than a month after an offended mob accused a girl of blasphemy for carrying a gown adorned with Arabic calligraphy, mistaken for Quran verses.
The newest criticism originated from the cybercrime unit of the nation’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Lahore, which referred the case to a neighborhood court docket in Gujranwala. In the ruling, Pak judges decided that the 22-year-old ready pictures and movies containing derogatory content material about Prophet Muhammad and his wives, main to his loss of life sentence.
The youthful defendant acquired life imprisonment for sharing the fabric. The FIA confirmed the receipt of “obscene material” by the plaintiff, extracted from three totally different cell phone numbers. Defense attorneys argued that the scholars had been ensnared in a fabricated case. The father of the death-row convict, whose id stays undisclosed, introduced plans to file an enchantment within the Lahore High Court. The minor defendant acquired life imprisonment as an alternative of capital punishment.
Blasphemy legal guidelines within the Islamic nation had been initially launched throughout British rule and expanded beneath the navy authorities within the Eighties. In a separate incident final August, quite a few church buildings and houses had been set ablaze in Jaranwala following accusations in opposition to two Christian males for damaging the Quran. Last month, lots of of supporters from Pakistani Islamist events on Friday rallied to protest in opposition to what they are saying had been blasphemous remarks by the nation’s chief justice.
The protest name, led by hardline Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) whose rallying cry is “death to blasphemers”, stated that remarks by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa in a case in opposition to a member of the minority Ahmadi neighborhood had been blasphemous. The court docket had granted bail to an Ahmadi neighborhood member in February, ruling that blasphemy fees in opposition to him didn’t stand. The man, accused of blasphemy for distributing Islamic literature, had been in jail for 13 months.
(With company inputs)
