Shafiq Latif was detained in the town of Sialkot in the Muslim country’s Punjab province in March 2006 under controversial blasphemy legislation, BosNewsLife learned. Police accused Latif of desecrating copies of the Koran, considered by Muslims as a holy book. He apparently tore pages of the book and threw in a garbage can on March 17, 2006.
In addition he was heared shouting what critics described as "inexcusable words to disgrace the Prophet Muhammad," even after police emerged to detain him.
The presiding judge in a district court in Sialkot said the verdict was based on Islamic law. Besides being sentenced to death, he was fined 500,000 Pakistan Rupees ($7,357). “After my decision [last week], I was unable to sleep for several days and nights,” said the judge, Sohaib Ahmad Rumi, in remarks to BosNewsLife.
ANGRY CROWDS
Banners and posters went up in the district welcoming the court decision, and there has been stepped up security around the court building where angry crowds have been demanding Latif’s death, witnesses said. Although the ruling can be appealed, the case has underscored international concerns over blasphemy laws in Pakistan, where minority Christians have also been sentenced to prison after they allegedly disgraced the Prophet Muhammad.
Rights groups say that the legislation has been misused to settle trivial disputes. Muslims and non-Muslims both have suffered under the blasphemy policy, which rights watchers claim has also encouraged violence and prison abuse. In one of the most recent violent incidents a Hindu factory worker accused uttering blasphemous words was killed by fellow workers, supposedly watched by police who were unable or unwilling to intervene.
Attempts have been made to moderate the legislation, including a 2004 modification requiring an independent investigation into alleged blasphemy by a higher-ranking police executive, but misuse of the legislation has continued, experts say. Pakistan’s new government has come under pressure to abolish the laws.
(Jawad Mazhar is a Christian journalist covering and investigating persecution from the most difficulties areas of Pakistan. He even survived at least one suicide attack while covering a major news story for BosNewsLife News Agency. As everyone at BosNewsLife, he currently raises his own financial support to make his ministry possible. Will you help him? Please prayerful consider any donation to: ‘Rays of Development Organization’
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