1947-2021 case history of blasphemy cases
May 6, 2023–A Muslim man has been lynched by a charged mob after being accused of blasphemy during a political gathering in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan district on Saturday, according to multiple reports. In a video posted online, several people can be seen beating the lifeless body of the man, believed to be in his 40s, in the Sawal Dher area of Mardan district, in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan’s northwest. The man, identified as Deobandi cleric Maulana Nigar Alam, was accused of telling the crowd at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rally that he respects PTI chairman Imran Khan like a prophet, as he is an honest man. However, it has now transpired that Maulana Nigar Alam made this reference to another local Mardan politician Saeed Khattak, who is also alleged to be his relative but such rumours have yet to be confirmed.
Source: The Friday Times
April 17, 2023–A Chinese citizen working for a construction project in Pakistan is under police protection after workers accused him of blasphemy against Islam, according to officials.
Officials said on Monday that the engineer at the Dasu hydropower project in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was accused of blasphemy after he highlighted the “slow pace of work” during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset. “The labourers said they were fasting but denied that work had slowed down, which led to an exchange of heated words” with the supervisor, a police official told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity. “Later, the labourers accused the engineer of making blasphemous remarks” and about 400 locals gathered to protest, he said.
Source: Al Jazeera
February 11, 2023–A blasphemy accused in Nankana Sahib was forcibly taken out of the police station by an angry mob of people and tortured to death. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken notice of the incident and ordered an inquiry. The unfortunate incident took place in Warburton area of Nankana Sahib, where the accused, a Muslim male, was detained in Warburton police station on charges of ‘blasphemy’ and ‘witchcraft’ by using pictures of his ex-wife. He was also accused of burning pages of the Holy Quran. He had recently returned after spending 2 years in jail.
Source: The Friday Times
March 30,2022--A teacher at an all-girls religious school in Pakistan has been allegedly killed by a female colleague and two students who accused her of blasphemy, police say – the latest murder in the country related to the hugely sensitive issue. The latest incident took place on Tuesday in Dera Ismail Khan in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. Police said two students and a teacher ambushed Safoora Bibi at the main gate of the school and attacked her with a knife and stick. “She died after her throat was slit,” police official Saghir Ahmed told AFP news agency.The main suspect is a colleague who planned the crime with two nieces studying at the Jamia Islamia Falahul Binaat school, police said.
Source: Al Jazeera
January 20,2022-– A Pakistani court has sentenced a Muslim woman to death for committing “blasphemy” by sharing images deemed to be insulting to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and one of his wives, also considered a holy personage by many Muslims. The trial court in the northern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Wednesday sentenced Aneeqa Ateeq under the country’s strict blasphemy laws, which impose a mandatory death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
Source: Al Jazeera
December 3, 2021–A mob in Pakistan tortured, killed and then set on fire a Sri Lankan man who was accused of blasphemy over some posters he had allegedly taken down.Priyantha Diyawadana, a Sri Lankan national who worked as general manager of a factory of the industrial engineering company Rajco Industries in Sialkot, Punjab, was set upon by a violent crowd on Friday.
Source: The Guardian