Blasphemy Law in Pakistan

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that four members of a Christian family were severely beaten by the police after their arrest on false charges of blasphemy. Police reportedly tortured them over a two-day period to try to extract forced confessions, releasing them only after being paid a substantial bribe. […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has heard that the violent campaign waged by Muslim radicals against a human rights lawyer who defends minorities has intensified in Faisalabad.  It would also like to make an amendment to previously issued information, to note that while the Daily Pavel printed a fatwa that named advocate Rao […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a human rights lawyer who offers free legal counsel to victims of the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, has escaped an attempt on his life and is receiving continual death threats from Muslim fundamentalist groups. Local police officers have repeatedly rebuffed his requests for […]

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following article from Ms. Sherry Rehman, former federal minister of information, Pakistan. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- An article from Ms. Sherry Rehman, former federal minister of information, Pakistan, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Gojra has exposed fundamental fissures in the crafting […]

As Pakistan marks Minorities Day, Amnesty International calls on the government to take meaningful action to protect religious minorities which have increasingly been the target of religiously-motivated attacks and persecution. The rise in attacks against religious minorities comes against a backdrop – and in tandem – with rising religious extremism in the country. Amnesty International […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that a young Christian grocer has been wrongly arrested under the blasphemy law after another shopkeeper advised him to burn some old papers, then reported him for burning the Quran. The blasphemy law is regularly misused by people with vendettas against minority persons and police […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that four children were illegally arrested under the blasphemy laws on January 28, 2009. They are in dangerous health conditions in the jail and their parents are not allowed to visit them according to jail policy. One, Mohammad Irfan son of Mukhtar Ahmed, 15 […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission is concerned to find two cases this month in Pakistan’s Punjab province that have targeted the Ahmadi minority sect. In one incident fifteen men in Sargodha district have been charged for attending a place of worship that resembles a mosque, after a complaint was lodged by a radical local religious […]

In a follow up development of the arrest of four teenagers and a man on blasphemy charge the representative of the Punjab provincial government, Mr. Syed Saqlain Shah, a member of the National Assembly, has instigated the people of the Layyah district, Punjab-Pakistan, to observe a protest day on February 17, the day on which […]

LAHORE, February 12, 2009: Five Ahmadis detained on charges of blasphemy in Layyah district have been held without virtually any proof or witnesses, the Human Rights Commission (HRCP) said on Thursday. The commission, which had sent a fact-finding team to Layyah district last week, said its findings concluded that an investigation, mandated by law prior […]

Five persons belonging to the Ahmadi sect of Islam, four of them children, have been arrested for desecrating the name of the last prophet of Islam (peace be upon him), and charged under a law that can only be met with the death penalty. The children were accused of writing the name of the Prophet […]

Jagdesh Kumar, a 27-year-old Hindu, was brutally killed by Muslim workers on the charge of Blasphemy on April 8, 2008 and to-date, no official inquiries have been initiated into this most brutal act. It was revealed after the incident by members of his family and close friends that he was in love with a Muslim […]

A 27 year old Hindu worker, Mr. Jagdesh Kumar was killed by fellow Muslim workers on the charge of blasphemy in the presence of more than two dozen policemen including an officer. The police and factory management made no attempt to stop the factory workers killing the young man. Some reports suggest that the victim […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the severe torture of two men by the Saddar police in Faisalabad district, Punjab province, Pakistan on 10 September 2006. The victims have been reportedly charged with a false blasphemy case after the police failed to present concrete evidence of an alleged theft […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned of the stabbing death of an under-trial prisoner in Muzzafar Garh, Pakistan. The prisoner, in police custody at the time of his death, had been charged with blasphemy following an accusation made by a seminary and government official. No person has yet been charged for […]

[RE: UA-214-2005: PAKISTAN: Desecration and destruction of churches and Christian property after blasphemy allegations at Sangla Hills, Pakistan; UP-148-2005: PAKISTAN: Tensions continue to simmer in alleged blasphemy case at Sangla Hills, Pakistan] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to further update you on the case involving the desecration and destruction of churches […]

[RE: UA-214-2005: PAKISTAN: Desecration and destruction of churches and Christian property after blasphemy allegations at Sangla Hills, Pakistan] PAKISTAN: Religious intolerance and violence, destruction of churches and Christian properties, threat and intimidation, rule of law ———————————————————————- Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to update you on the case involving the desecration and […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the destruction of Christian churches and schools by people enraged at the alleged blasphemy of the Holy Quran. According to the information we have received, on 12 November 2005, a mob attacked three Churches, a Sister’s Convent, a Christian school building and a […]

Dear friends The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned by information regarding the assault and abduction of Pastor Wilson Fazal, on 16 May 2004 in Quetta, Pakistan. Prior to this incident, three churches in Quetta had reportedly received letters instructing them to expel all Muslims from their institutions and to abandon their preaching and […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received additional information about the killing of Irfan Khokhar in Pakistan (Refer to: UA-49-2004 and UP-24-2004). The victim’s family is still being threatened as are staff members of Peace Worldwide, who is helping the victim’s family. Irfan Khokhar, who was the information coordinator of Peace Worldwide, a Christian organization […]