With the present structure of the blasphemy laws and widespread radicalisation in society, there can no respite for people victimized, attacked or killed for 'blasphemy' in Pakistan.
by Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
On August 8, 2024, a mob of nearly 250 to 300 Muslims attacked and tried to kill two Christian sisters, Sonia Masih and Saima Masih, accusing them of blasphemy, in the Kathore village of Gojra tehsil (revenue unit) in the Toba Tek Singh District of Punjab. The mob tried to kill Saima Masih after Muhammad Haider accused her of hurting Islamic religious sentiments by desecrating pages of the Quran, according to attorney Akmal Bhatti, chairman of the Minorities Alliance Pakistan (MAP). “The mob would have lynched Saima if the Police had not reached there on time and rescued her… The mob also reportedly attacked some other Christian residents of the village, forcing them to flee their homes and hide in the fields to save their lives,” Bhatti added.
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| File Photo of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, Pakistan |
On July 19, a violent mob attack a Police Station in the Behlolpur village of Okara District in Punjab, after a man was arrested on blasphemy charges. The mob attacked the Hujra Police Station where the man was kept, demanding that the accused be handed over to them. According to the first information report (FIR), the complainant was passing through village Behlolpur when he saw a village resident burning the pages of the Holy Quran along a mosque wall. When an alarm was raised, the village men rushed to the site. The Hujra Police responded quickly, arrested the suspect and registered a case against him. As the news spread, a mob gathered outside the Police Station and attacked its building. The Police had to shift the suspect to an undisclosed safer location.
On June 20, 2024, a blasphemy accused was killed, while three protestors sustained injuries in Police firing, as violent protest erupted at the Madain Bazaar of Swat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The crowd caught a tourist from the Sialkot District of Punjab and subjected him to physical torture before the Police arrived and took him in custody to the Madain Police Station. The protesters besieged the Police Station, demanding swift action against the suspect. In an attempt to disperse the crowd, Police fired shots, resulting in injuries to at least three persons. The situation escalated further as protesters set the Police Station ablaze. The perpetrator was then dragged out and lynched, after which the mob set his body on fire on the road.
A Christian man from the Sargodha District of Punjab, who was injured and rescued from a mob during a blasphemy attack on May 25, succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Rawalpindi on June 3. On May 25, Police had rescued the man from a lynch mob over a desecration allegation. The mob also attacked the homes of some other members of the minority Christian community in the Mujahid Colony of Sargodha. Subsequently, a terrorism case was registered against 44 named and 300 to 400 unidentified suspects, with more than 100 arrests being made. Meanwhile, the Police had also registered a blasphemy case against the Christian man.
So far, in 2024, according to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), four blasphemy related incidents of violence have been recorded in which two persons were killed. There were only two such incidents in 2023 resulting in two fatalities. Three persons were killed in blasphemy related incidents in 2022, and another three in such violence in 2021.
According to the Lahore based Center for Social Justice (CSJ)’s March 2024 report, at least 329 persons were accused of blasphemy under the law in 2023. Among these, 247 were Muslims, 65 were Ahmadis, 11 were Christians and one was Hindu, while the religious affiliation of five others was unknown. Punjab had the highest number of people accused of blasphemy (179), followed Sindh (79), Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK, 37), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP, 32), and one each in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. According to the report, seven persons accused of blasphemy were killed extra-judicially in 2023, including four in Punjab and one each in KP, Balochistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir. 95 blasphemy suspects were killed extra-judicially between 1994 and 2023. The only conviction and sentencing for such killings was that of Mumtaz Qadri, who was executed in February 29, 2016 after assassinating former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in January 4, 2011.
At least 2,449 persons have been accused of committing blasphemy between 1987 and 2023, according to the CSJ report. The highest number of accused by religion were 1,279 Muslims (52 per cent), followed by 782 Ahmadis (32 per cent), 291 Christians (12 per cent), and 45 Hindus (2 per cent), while the religion of the remaining 52 was unconfirmed. The highest number of cases by area was 1,770 in Punjab (72 per cent), followed by 471 in Sindh (19 per cent), 99 in KP (4 per cent), 55 in PaK (2 per cent), 35 in Islamabad, 12 in Balochistan and seven in Gilgit Baltistan.
The CSJ cited data from the Punjab Prison Department, indicating that, as of February 13, 2024, there were 587 prisoners confined for blasphemy under sections 295-A, B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code, in jails across the province. Among these, 515 were under trial, including 508 males, six females, and one juvenile prisoner. Lahore High Court Attorney Lazar Allah Rakha, who has successfully defended several people falsely accused of blasphemy, noted, on March 5, 2024, that there has been a spike in blasphemy allegations in recent years. During an interview to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, he observed,
The state must legislate against false accusations of blasphemy, because this abuse hangs like the sword of Damocles on the heads of all citizens regardless of their faith affiliations. The situation has aggravated to the extent that people are now being targeted over minor disputes on almost a daily basis. Due to the risks attached to blasphemy cases, judges tend to adjourn hearings, which results in prolonged incarceration of suspects, which is a serious violation of their human rights.
Blasphemy has been used by the Islamic fundamentalists as well as in personal disputes in the theocratic state of Pakistan. The origins of the blasphemy laws date back to the British era, when the first blasphemy were promulgated in 1860. Four blasphemy laws included in the Indian Penal – section 295, 296, 297 and 298 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) of 1860, and in 1927, section 295 was supplemented by 295A after a 19 year old carpenter named Ilmuddin stabbed Mahashay Rajpal Malhotra to death on April 6, 1929, for publishing a blasphemous pamphlet.
In the early phase after Pakistan’s Independence, there were no new legal provisions for blasphemy. Harsh provisions were introduced during the military rule of Zia-ul-Haq (1978-1988) and the most controversial laws, Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, PPC, (blasphemy against the Holy Quran) was introduced in 1982; and Section 295-C, PPC (desecration against Prophet Muhammad) in 1986. The section 295-C read:
Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.
Later, the Federal Sharia Court held in a judgement that life imprisonment was repugnant to Islam, and that, therefore, the death penalty was the only punishment possible for those convicted of blasphemy under 295-C. The Court ruled that if the Government did not delete the words “imprisonment for life” from the statute by April 30, 1991, the Court would consider the change to have been made. On May 1, 1991, consequently, the death penalty became mandatory for persons convicted under 295-C, according to the Federal Sharia Court. Though a Bill was adopted by the Senate to give effect to the ruling, the National Assembly did not pass the Bill. However, the Court’s ruling on the mandatory death penalty remained valid.
Among the most high-profile blasphemy accused was Aasia Bibi, also known as Asia Noreen, a Christian woman from Ittan Wali village in the Sheikhupura District. She was sentenced to death on November 7, 2010, for blasphemy, allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad during a row with woman neighbours in June 2009. Noreen denied that she had committed blasphemy and asserted that she had been accused by her neighbours to “settle an old score.” On November 7, 2010, Muhammed Naveed Iqbal, a judge at the district Court of Sheikhupura, sentenced her to death by hanging. Additionally, a fine equivalent to USD 1,100 was also imposed. On October 31, 2018, Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and Aasia Bibi was released from the New Jail for Women in Multan on November 7, 2018. Under extreme threat from Islamist extremists, she was, nevertheless, not permitted to leave the country until the decision was reviewed, and was held under armed guard until May 7, 2019, when she was able to fly to Canada, where she received asylum.
In the interim, the then Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, who came forward to support Aasia Bibi, was killed by his own security guard, Mumtaz Qadri on January 4, 2011. Qadri was reportedly incensed by the Governor’s denunciation of the blasphemy law, as also his advocacy for Aasia Bibi. Taseer had demanded the removal of the mandatory death penalty on conviction for blasphemy. Subsequently, on March 2, 2011, unidentified assailants killed the then Federal Minorities Affairs Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, another outspoken critic of the law.
Significantly, most of the blasphemy cases are found to be false. On September 1, 2022, the Supreme Court (SC), in a detailed judgement, asked the concerned State functionaries to exercise “utmost care” while dealing with blasphemy cases. The SC’s judgement came in the case of bail granted to a Christian sanitary worker imprisoned since January 4, 2021 in false blasphemy accusation case. During the judgement, Justice Qazi Faez Isa observed,
Unfortunately, such cases receive wide publicity which has an adverse effect and may also jeopardise a fair trial. Irresponsible and sensational broadcasts and publications repeat what allegedly the accused had said or done; those repeating this may themselves be committing the same offence.
Interestingly, the radical Islamic group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), which came into existence after the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, the assassin of former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, announced a reward on the head of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, in response to his decision in the Mabarik Sani blasphemy case. The deputy leader of TLP, Pir Syed Zaheer ul Hassan, announced “head money” on the judge after the Supreme Court on July 24, 2024, accepted the Punjab Government’s plea to revisit its February 6, 2024, order in the Mubarak Ahmad Sani case, and declared that the right to profess religion and religious freedom, as ensured by the Constitution, is subject to law, morality and public order. The three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, noted that Ahmadis were entitled to practice their faith in the privacy of their homes, places of worship, and specific private institutions, subject to reasonable legal restrictions. Pir Syed Zaheer ul Hassan was arrested on July 29, 2024, in the Okara District under the Anti-Terrorism Act (7-ATA).
Pakistan is one of 13 countries where blasphemy is punishable by death. While human rights groups have been concerned about this draconian punishment, the Pakistan Government, instead of considering a lesser punishment, passed a Bill on January 17, 2023, that further strengthens the contentious blasphemy laws. The National Assembly unanimously passed the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act 2023, enhancing the minimum punishment for those who insult the revered personalities of Islam from three to 10 years, along with a fine of PKR 1 million. These provisions will further jeopardised the life of blasphemy accused. On March 24, 2023, an anti-terrorism court in Peshawar city, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, convicted and sentenced Syed Muhammad Zeeshan to death after he was accused of posting blasphemous content on a WhatsApp group.
On December 18, 2023, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a new report Assessing Blasphemy in Pakistan. The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. Federal Government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). Its commissioners are appointed by the President and by Congressional leaders of both political parties. The USCIRF report on Pakistan observed,
In Pakistan, blasphemy accusations, whether true or false, often lead to lengthy prison sentences on death row and solitary confinement, foment violence towards religious minorities, and in some cases, the killing of the accused… Those accused of blasphemy often face mob violence, imprisonment, or the death sentence. While the government has not yet executed anyone for blasphemy, non-state actors have killed alleged blasphemers. Rather than taking steps to mitigate the violence, however, the Pakistani government has recently undertaken efforts to strengthen the country’s existing blasphemy legislation… In many instances, vigilante groups and perpetrators of targeted violence against those accused of blasphemy operate with impunity, even in the presence of police forces… Blasphemy legislation remains a key challenge to the protection of religious freedom in Pakistan.
On June 23, 2024, Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Asif admitted on the floor of the National Assembly that the State had failed in the protection of minorities in Pakistan, as the Lower House of Parliament passed a resolution condemning recent incidents of mob lynching in various parts of the country. “Minorities are being murdered daily… no religious minority is safe in Pakistan. Even the smaller sects of the Muslims are not safe,” Khawaja Asif emphasised, “Our Constitution provides protection to the minorities, but practically we are seeing them being murdered in Swat, Sargodha and Faisalabad. This is a matter of concern and embarrassment [for the nation].”
With the present structure of the blasphemy laws and widespread radicalisation in society, there can no respite for people victimized, attacked or killed for ‘blasphemy’ in Pakistan.
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty is a Counter-terrorism Expert on Pakistan at Institute for Conflict Management (ICM) in New Delhi
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