Blasphemy case registered against unknown ‘Christians’
A case under blasphemy legal provisions has been registered against unknown Christian accused at Batapur Police station, Lahore.
The case is registered on an application of Hafiz Arsalan Ahmad, Khateeb of Masjid Ya Rasool Allah, Phullarwan. It is registered under section 295B (crime of insult to the Holy Quran) of Pakistan Penal Code.
Arsalan, an active member of Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah, in the application submitted that some unknown accused (one of several) have deliberately through some pages of Quran at a dirty place in the neighborhood of a Christian locality. He said those thrown pages of Quran were spotted by one Muhammad Aslam, a scavenger. He said being told by Aslam, he informed the police and Muslims residents of the area to take action against the accused. He said in this incident the accuse have not only insulted Quran but also hurt religious sentiments of the Muslims of the area. He requested the police to take action against the accused.
Aslam Parvaiz Sahotra, a human rights activist and a Christian leader, told Religion Observer that the police acted in a responsible manner to deal with this case. He said some locals were trying to implicate one Christian man who became a Muslim but after few years he embraced Christianity. He said the man after converting to Christianity had left for Dubai fearing action by the local Muslims. He came back few weeks ago and now he is being accused of insulting Quran. He said the police decided to register this FIR after talking to the people of the area none of whom had seen anybody insulting Quran. He said blasphemy is an easy weapon to implicate minority members.
This incident occurred in the village of Brehman Abad area or Burki police area, eastern part of the city of Lahore, on Saturday last but the tension mounted Sunday when many hundreds of Muslims of the adjoining villages reached there following announcements in the area mosques to ‘defend Islam.’
We had no clue of the incident until hundreds of charged Muslims arrived the area followed by heavy contingents of Police, Arshad Masih, a resident of the village, told Religion Observer. He said the police asked them to avoid any mishap Christians should move to some safe spots for time being. He it has been three days since all Christian women and children have left their houses for sake of life.
Arshad said Muslims of their village are aligning with Christians but Tehrik-e-Labbaik clerics are instigating their followers from neighboring villages against Christians. They lodged a protest last night and kept the road near Burki Police Station blocked for several hours.
According to details, a scavenger found some damaged pages of Holy Quran on Saturday and in consultation with some Muslim boys of the area accused Christians, without even naming someone, of insulting Quran. Police have not registered any FIR so far however clerics are putting pressure for registration of the FIR. The police have arranged a meeting with Christian and Muslims notables this afternoon to find some amicable solution.
Arshad Masih said the Christians are ready to give any kind of undertaking for satisfaction of Muslims. He said most of the Christians are labourers and cannot face Muslims. He said they are living under constant fear of attack on their church or houses.
