Christian Mom Jailed on Blasphemy Cost in Pakistan

Location of Toba Tek Singh District in Pakistan. (Imagery © 2024 TerraMetrics, Map data © 2024 Google)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Every day Worldwide–Morning Star Information) – A Christian lady in Pakistan has been arrested and charged with blasphemy after a Muslim prayer chief accused her of burning passages of Islamic scripture, sources mentioned.

Gojra Saddar police in Toba Tek Singh District, Punjab Province, on Saturday (Dec. 21) arrested Shazia Younis, mom of two kids, on the grievance of Atta Ul Mustafa, prayer chief of a mosque in her village, Chak No. 180-GB Mongi Bangla.

Gojra-based lawyer Haneef Matto mentioned the 50-year-old housewife was despatched into judicial custody the identical day she was arrested.

“In response to their neighbors, Shazia’s husband Younis and her two sons, one in every of whom is married, have gone underground as a result of safety fears,” Matto informed Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “They’re a poor household, and Shazia’s husband and sons earn livelihood as every day wage laborers.”

Mustafa, the complainant, acknowledged within the FIR that he was in a market on Saturday (Dec. 21) when two native Muslims, Muhammad Imran and Rab Nawaz, knowledgeable him that Shazia Younis had set fireplace to books outdoors her doorstep.

“The fabric set ablaze included a e-book of Islamiyat, which contained Islamic scripture,” Mustafa acknowledged within the FIR, claiming additionally that Shazia Younis had admitted desecrating the pages to him.

“Shazia has damage the spiritual sentiments of Muslims, and he or she ought to due to this fact be punished as per the related regulation,” he acknowledged within the grievance.

Police arrested her and charged her beneath Part 295-B of Pakistan’s broadly condemned blasphemy regulation referring to desecration of the Quran, punishable by life in jail.

Intent have to be proven for a blasphemy conviction, and Matto mentioned the FIR doesn’t point out any ailing intention behind the alleged blasphemy.

“I haven’t but spoken on to the household, however from my expertise of coping with such circumstances, I feel that it’s attainable that Shazia was burning waste paper, which inadvertently included the Islamiyat e-book,” Matto informed Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information.

The complainant, being a Muslim chief, might have addressed the matter amicably however as a substitute registered a case towards the impoverished Christian, an act that was extreme, Matto mentioned.

The Christian lawyer, who can also be defending two Christian sisters charged with Quran desecration in one other village in Gojra, mentioned it was unlucky that Shazia Younis was focused by the blasphemy regulation simply 4 days earlier than Christmas.

Minorities Alliance Pakistan President Akmal Bhatti condemned the arrest, saying that placing harmless folks in jail over false allegations of blasphemy highlighted the necessity for procedural reforms within the controversial regulation.

“The police immediately register blasphemy FIRs and arrest folks with out investigating the costs to appease the mobs,” Bhatti informed Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “This pattern has resulted in an exceptional improve in false allegations of blasphemy that has typically resulted in violent assaults on Christian neighborhoods and lynching of the accused.”

UNHRC Urges Amending of Legal guidelines

Expressing alarm over a rise in false blasphemy accusations in Pakistan, the U.N. Human Rights Committee on Nov. 7 urged repeal or amending of the nation’s harsh blasphemy legal guidelines.

The committee famous that false blasphemy accusations led to Islamist mob violence and advisable amending the legal guidelines in accordance with necessities of the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

In its concluding observations of the committee’s second periodic report on Pakistan, it acknowledged concern over sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carry extreme penalties, together with the demise penalty, and have a disproportionate influence on spiritual minorities.

“Additionally it is involved concerning the rising variety of individuals incarcerated beneath blasphemy expenses, the excessive variety of blasphemy circumstances based mostly on false accusations, violence towards these accused of blasphemy, fostering vigilante justice, and allegations of entrapment of individuals, particularly younger individuals, on accusations of on-line blasphemy beneath cybercrime legal guidelines,” the committee acknowledged.

It emphasised ending use of cybercrime legal guidelines, such because the Prevention of Digital Crimes Act (PECA) 2016, to prosecute and detain these accused of breaching blasphemy legal guidelines on-line. The committee additionally urged the federal government to research allegations of huge abuse of blasphemy legal guidelines in reference to cybercrime legal guidelines and publish the outcomes of the inquiries.

“[The committee] can also be involved concerning the chilling impact that felony defamation legal guidelines, blasphemy, sedition and counter-terrorism legal guidelines, and different lately handed laws have on the train of freedom of expression by journalists, activists, human rights defenders and members of ethnic and spiritual minorities,” it acknowledged.

Urging Pakistan to take all mandatory measures to ensure immediate and truthful trials for all individuals charged with blasphemy or different offenses towards faith, the committee highlighted jail situations, stating that it was “additionally involved about stories of abuse of girls prisoners, together with sexual violence, and that people accused of blasphemy are sometimes positioned in solitary confinement for prolonged durations of time. It stays involved concerning the widespread recourse to extended pretrial detention.”

Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doorways’ 2024 World Watch Record of essentially the most troublesome locations to be a Christian, because it was the earlier 12 months.

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