November 21, 2025
A special divisional bench of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, has acquitted five people of blasphemy charges. The individuals were allegedly victims of the “Blasphemy Business Group.”
The five men named Wazir, Faizan, Ameen, Rizwan and Usman were arrested in September 2022 by the FIA Cyber Crime Wing, Rawalpindi Circle, under the PECA Act and Section 295-C for allegedly sharing blasphemous content.
The complaint was filed by one Umer Nawaz, who, besides this case, has also lodged at least four other blasphemy complaints against several young men.
Background
In September 2023, a trial court sentenced four of the accused, namely Wazir, Faizan, Ameen and Rizwan, to death. Usman was sentenced to seven years in prison.
The five individuals, whose ages range from 20 to 25 years, challenged their convictions in the LHC through their lawyer, Rizwan Haider Afzal.
The division bench comprising Justice Jawad Hassan and Justice Sultan Mehmood acquitted all five young men after reviewing the case and trial court verdict, noting that the evidence was insufficient to uphold the convictions.
“The bench also expressed its displeasure over the filing of frivolous blasphemy cases and questioned why legal proceedings should not be initiated against the complainant,” lawyer Rizwan Haider Afzal said.
He added that his clients were victims of the “Blasphemy Business Group”, which has reportedly entrapped hundreds of individuals online before lodging blasphemy FIRs against them.
“This decision by the LHC division bench is a ray of hope for hundreds of other individuals, mostly young people, who have been incarcerated for many years on the basis of FIRs filed by the Blasphemy Business Group,” Afzal said.
He noted that courts have recently started giving relief to victims of the BBG, and so far more than 80 individuals have been granted bail by courts across the country.
In October 2025, the Lahore High Court also acquitted a 29-year-old woman who had been sentenced to death two years earlier for allegedly sending blasphemous messages via WhatsApp and Facebook. She was also identified as a victim of the BBG.
Blasphemy Business Group – what is it?
The existence of the BBG was revealed in a January 2024 report by the Punjab Police Special Branch, which found that a suspicious network had been entrapping young people in blasphemy cases and extorting money in collusion with certain FIA officials. The report recommended launching a formal investigation to uncover the activities of the gang.
The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) confirmed similar tactics in its 2024 report, stating that young men were targeted through female operatives using pseudonyms who entrapped them in online conversations that later led to their arrests. The NCHR report also highlighted serious procedural violations and noted that arrests were often carried out by private individuals rather than law enforcement.
It documented several allegations of torture during and after apprehension and stated that written statements were frequently obtained under duress.
In September 2024, families of more than 100 individuals jailed in blasphemy cases approached the Islamabad High Court seeking the formation of a commission to investigate allegations of fabricated evidence.
In July 2025, the Islamabad High Court directed the federal government to constitute such a commission within one month to investigate claims that an organized group had been entrapping youth in false blasphemy cases.
The commission was instructed to complete its inquiry within four months. However, a division bench later suspended the order for the formation of the investigative commission.