Christians stand at the door of their newly reconstructed houses in Jaranwala on Oct. 12, 2023. More than 80 Christian homes and 26 churches were vandalized in a riot in Jaranwala in Punjab province on Aug. 16, 2023. (Photo: AFP)
A court in Pakistan has sentenced a 22-year-old Christian to death, convicting him of offending Muslims' religious sentiment that allegedly resulted in last year's anti-Christian riot in Punjab province's Jaranwala city.
Judge Ziaullah Khan of the Anti-Terrorism Court in Punjab's Sahiwal city sentenced Ahsan Raja Masih to death on June 29 under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, including the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Masih, a brick kiln worker, was convicted of posting a blasphemous letter on social media and thus “offending the sentiments of Muslims and trying to promote religious hatred.”
The death sentence has evoked a strong response from Christian leaders in the Islamic nation.
"We condemn this in strongest terms,” said Bishop Joseph Arshad of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, chairperson of the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops' Conference.
“This is the abuse of law, a travesty of justice,” Bishop Indrias Rehmat of Faisalabad told UCA News.
Many Christians took to social media to protest.
Church of Pakistan Bishop Nadeem Kamran of Lahore said, “Such condemnations reflect the frustration of Christians,” constituting about 1.6 percent of Pakistan's 241 million people.
Police registered the case against Masih based on an officer's complaint, invoking multiple sections, including the sweeping blasphemy law.
Masih’s lawyer, Khurram Shahzad, said the forensic agency found no blasphemous content in Masih’s mobile phone.
He added that there are many loopholes in the investigative agencies' reports.
“This is another case of persecution of a poor family from the minority community,” he told UCA News.
Masih was accused of causing the riot, but its victims were entirely Christians.
More than 80 Christian homes and 26 churches were vandalized in the Jaranwala riot on Aug. 16, 2023, over allegations of the Quran desecration.
The Dawn newspaper reported on July 1 that most of the people accused in the riot were freed, and only 12 people are currently facing trials.
“Many Bibles were burned and churches desecrated, but mob attackers walked free,” Bishop Kamran told UCA News.
The blasphemy law in Pakistan has a provision for the death penalty. But no one has been executed so far.
However, the country has witnessed numerous cases of mob lynching over blasphemy allegations.
On June 20, a Muslim mob in Madyan, a popular hill station of Swat Valley in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, brutally killed a fellow Muslim and burned his body, accusing him of desecrating pages of the Quran.
This May, an elderly Christian, Nazir Masih, was attacked in Sargodha in Punjab province after he was accused of blasphemy for allegedly burning pages of the Quran. He died on June 3.
According to the Lahore-based Centre for Social Justice, nearly 3,000 persons have been accused of blasphemy since 1987. At least 552 accused have been incarcerated in prisons in Punjab province since last year.
Over 350 persons were put behind bars across Pakistan till last month, and 103 new persons were implicated between January and June this year.
