August 4, 2020
By Ahmed Saeed
LAHORE
Pir Mahal police have lodged an FIR against a young man R* for allegedly posting blasphemous posts on his Facebook account. He was booked under section 295 A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and 16 Maintenance of Public Ordinance (MPO) 1960. The police was the complainant in the case.
Section 295 A states that “Whoever, with the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the ‘religious feelings of any class of the citizens of Pakistan, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations insults the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, or with fine, or with both.”
The police said that they have registered the FIR to maintain public order in the city. They confirmed that the accused had been arrested and sent to jail on a 14 day judicial remand.
According to the FIR, the accused had posted some ‘hateful’ content after the killing of an accused blasphemer in a court in Peshawar.
Rights activists have expressed their outrage over the arrest and have called for the immediate release of the accused. They feared that the young boy could face the same fate as Junaid Hafeez did.
Hafeez was also arrested on the charges of sharing alleged blasphemous content on his social media accounts in 2013 by Multan Police. Hafeez was charged under section 295-C of PPC. He was later sentenced to death by a district court in Multan last year.
