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Scandals and false allegations of blasphemy are increasing day by day as the extremist Islamic groups in Pakistan have become stronger than they ever had in recent decades, and some far-right political parties would like to see them as an integrated part of the official parliamentary politics. For instance, Tehreek-e-Labaik (a new Islamist group) rallied against amending the law on blasphemy in Pakistan, demonstrating how these groups are getting increasingly organized. These actions are raising many questions about the nature of the state, about its role in counteracting these assemblies and about the narrative catered to the crowd.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the acclaimed religious leader of Tehreek-e-Labaik, targeted every single political party and their leaders using extremely offensive language in front of his followers and the national media. He addressed the Supreme Court, demanding it yields its decision in regards to the death sentence of Mumtaz Qadri, the Punjab governor Salman Taseer’s killer. Qadri, who was one of Taseer’s bodyguards, killed the politician on the basis of false blasphemy accusations. The murderer was hanged on  February 29th, 2016 causing turmoils across Pakistan, which bred many organizations like Tehreek-e-Labaik.

The investigations on blasphemy

Patras Masih, a Christian teenager, was arrested on the pretence of blasphemy while his cousin, Sajid Masih, is in critical condition after mysteriously “falling off” the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building, where he was being questioned in regards to the blasphemy case. Some local journalists claimed a few members of the Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labaik were also on site.

The sequence of events began a few days prior, when the Shahdara Town Police Station opened a First Information Report (FIR) against Patras under section 295-C of the Blasphemy Law. The police received a complaint by a man named Hafiz Muhammad Awais, who accused Patras to have posted sacrilegious photography in a Facebook group called “Paaglon Ki Basti”, on January 16th, 2018.

Heavy accusation of torture

In a recent social media video uploaded by the hospital, Sajid Masih claims that FIA agents beat him during the interrogation, and then tried to force him to have oral sex with his cousin: “I’ve begged them… I couldn’t have sex with my cousin, which made them angry. They insisted and I had no option but to jump out the window.”

Meanwhile, FIA sub-inspector Khalid Saeed rejected the allegations, saying the suspect had panicked during the investigation. Patras’s lawyer, Aneeqa Maria, told the local newspapers that an injunction was filed on Saturday with the Lahore High Court against the FIA for torturing the two cousins.

Samar Abbas
journalist in Karachi (Pakistan)
©2018 Il Grande Colibrì

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