CV NEWS FEED // A Christian lawyer in Pakistan is urging local authorities to conduct an unbiased investigation after it appeared that blasphemy charges brought against a Christian woman came as a direct result of violent mob pressure.
According to a Pakistan Christian News report, a 32 year-old woman in the village of Khator, Gojra, identified as Saima, was arrested and charged under the country’s notorious blasphemy law on Aug. 7, in connection to accusations that her Muslim neighbor brought against her.
The neighbor, identified in the local police report as Muhammad Haider, claims he witnessed Saima “throwing a bag of wastepaper into a plot next to his home.” He said he investigated and found the bag contained several pages of the Quran, including one that had a name and phone number written on it.
When Haider and another Muslim neighbor confronted Saima, the police report claims “she responded rudely and used inappropriate language.”
“These charges are baseless. Saima is being implicated in this case due to the ulterior motives of her Muslim neighbors,” stated Christian lawyer and Chairman of the Minorities Alliance Pakistan, Akmal Bhatti in the news report. As is a common occurrence in the region, the incident provoked what the local report described as “severe tension and unrest” in the area, resulting in the formation of a radical Islamist mob, which mobilized itself against Saima and her family.
According to the news report, Saima attempted to escape and hide in nearby crop fields, “but was pursued and tortured by the enraged mob,” until police arrived on the scene, taking Saima and her family into custody “to protect their lives.”
Authorities charged Saima the day after the incident. Bhatti claims the charges were a response to mob pressure. The religious freedom legal advocate is now calling on police to withdraw the charges and “to conduct a fair and unbiased investigation in line with Section 156 of the Criminal Procedure Code,” according to the report.
As CatholicVote previously reported, there were at least 70 violent attacks perpetrated against Pakistani Christians in the first half of 2024, following the devastating Jaranwala attacks in August last year.
