Mentally Challenged Christian in Pakistan Charged with Blasphemy
Farhan Javed Masih. (Christian Every day Information-Morning Star Information courtesy of household)
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Every day Worldwide–Morning Star Information) – Police in Pakistan this week arrested a mentally challenged Christian on blasphemy costs regardless of being conscious of his situation, sources mentioned.
In Sahiwal, Punjab Province, Ghala Mandi police on Monday (Jan. 26) arrested Farhan Javed Masih, 28, after a neighborhood villager, Muhammad Bilal Khan, accused him of talking in opposition to Islam and the faith’s sacred figures, mentioned the suspect’s mom, Parveen Javed.
“We have been at residence when Bilal and another Muslims got here and advised us that Farhan had dedicated blasphemy,” Javed advised Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “I pleaded with them to forgive him conserving in thoughts his psychological state, however they didn’t hearken to me and known as the police, which arrested him.”
Javed, widowed six years in the past and mom of three youngsters in Chak 134-9/L village, mentioned Farhan Masih’s psychological well being began deteriorating after his father’s dying. His youthful sister, Anum, mentioned that his psychological situation was recognized to everybody within the village.
“Getting him arrested for blasphemy will solely worsen his psychological situation,” she mentioned. “The police ought to have no less than gotten his psychological examination performed earlier than registering the FIR [First Information Report] in opposition to him.”
A member of the Affiliate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Parveen Javed mentioned her son had accomplished a four-year nursing course and had labored at Adam Welfare Hospital in Sahiwal however was fired in 2023 because of psychological sickness and drug dependancy.
“Farhan had grow to be a heroin addict, which aggravated his psychological well being,” she mentioned. “We’ve tried to get him handled, however it didn’t work. Ever since he misplaced his job, Farhan used to loiter across the village all day saying absurd issues. The whole village is aware of that he’s of unsound thoughts.”
His sister mentioned the household was surviving on the earnings of her and her mom.
“My mom and I are already beneath a variety of strain and stress because of my brothers’ sickness and drug dependancy drawback,” she mentioned. “Now we’re on a knife’s edge pondering what’s going to occur to Farhan given how severe the accusation is.”
Intent should be confirmed for conviction on blasphemy costs in Pakistan, which carry punishments starting from fines and jail to the dying penalty.
Complainant Bilal Khan acknowledged within the FIR that he was going to water his crops when Farhan Masih arrived and began talking absurdities.
“The holy personages of your faith are false, and I don’t wish to dwell amongst Muslims, since you belong to inferior standing,” Masih advised him, in response to Khan’s police grievance.
Police registered a case in opposition to the Christian beneath the blasphemy statutes, together with Part 295-A, which requires imprisonment of as much as 10 years for deliberate and malicious acts meant to outrage non secular emotions of any class by insulting its faith or non secular beliefs; 298-A, with a punishment of as much as 10 years in jail for disrespecting the wives and companions of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam; and Part 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which features a clause associated to inflicting civil commotion or unrest and is punishable by a minimal five-year jail time period.
Bishop Abraham Daniel of the Baptist Church in Sahiwal mentioned there have been 150 to 200 Christian households within the village.
“After I bought information of the incident, I instantly contacted senior police officers and sought safety for the Christian residents,” Daniel advised Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “Fortunately, well timed police deployment prevented any untoward incident from going down there, and the scenario is peaceable now.”
He mentioned that Masih’s psychological sickness ought to have protected him in opposition to arrest on blasphemy costs.
“Farhan has no management over his thoughts and doesn’t comprehend the seriousness of the issues that he says,” Daniel mentioned. “He didn’t commit blasphemy deliberately, and the police and court docket should take his psychological situation into consideration whereas judging the matter.”
Church of Pakistan’s Moderator Bishop Azad Marshall mentioned a senior officer ought to have intervened as police knew the matter concerned an individual of unstable thoughts.
“Farhan’s case is especially regarding as a result of his psychological sickness raises severe questions on his means to grasp or commit the alleged offense,” Marshall advised Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “We’ve repeatedly known as for reforms in Pakistan’s blasphemy legal guidelines, however sadly our pleas proceed to be ignored regardless of a number of folks falling sufferer to false accusations of blasphemy each second day.”
The senior church chief additionally expressed concern over studies of organized teams trapping youths in blasphemy circumstances throughout the nation, regretting that the damaging pattern had made Christians extra weak to persecution.
“Tons of of individuals, together with Muslims, are being accused and jailed for blasphemy, however it’s very unusual that regardless of this concern being highlighted by the media and even the Nationwide Fee for Human Rights, nothing is being performed to dismantle such organized teams,” he mentioned.
Spike in False Accusations
In Muslim-majority Pakistan, any baseless blasphemy accusation can ignite public outrage and generally lead to mob violence.
In response to the Lahore-based advocacy group Heart for Social Justice, 343 blasphemy circumstances have been filed in Pakistan in 2024, together with 19 Christians, 5 of them females.
Expressing alarm over a rise in false blasphemy accusations in Pakistan, the U.N. Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on Nov. 7 urged repeal or amending of the nation’s extensively condemned blasphemy legal guidelines.
The committee famous that false blasphemy accusations led to Islamist mob violence and really helpful 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 dying penalty, and have a disproportionate impression on non secular minorities.
“Additionally it is involved in regards to the growing variety of individuals incarcerated beneath blasphemy costs, the excessive variety of blasphemy circumstances based mostly on false accusations, violence in opposition to 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 analyze allegations of large abuse of blasphemy legal guidelines in reference to cybercrime legal guidelines and publish the outcomes of the inquiries.
“[The committee] can also be involved in regards to the chilling impact that legal defamation legal guidelines, blasphemy, sedition and counter-terrorism legal guidelines, and different just lately handed laws have on the train of freedom of expression by journalists, activists, human rights defenders and members of ethnic and non secular minorities,” it acknowledged.
Urging Pakistan to take all needed measures to ensure immediate and truthful trials for all individuals charged with blasphemy or different offenses in opposition to faith, the committee highlighted jail situations, stating that it was “additionally involved about studies of abuse of ladies prisoners, together with sexual violence, and that people accused of blasphemy are sometimes positioned in solitary confinement for prolonged intervals of time. It stays involved in regards to the widespread recourse to extended pretrial detention.”
Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doorways’ 2025 World Watch Record of probably the most tough locations to be a Christian.
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