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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province [Pakistan]April 17 (ANI): A Chinese national was arrested for blasphemy on Monday afternoon and transferred by Pakistan Army helicopter from Upper Kohistan to Alberta due to security concerns, Komila station building official Naseeruddin said, Dawn newspaper reported. bard.
A Pakistani worker said he was scolded by his Chinese supervisor for using Bairamzan as an excuse to avoid work. Both are working on the Dasu Dam hydroelectric gravity dam under construction in the Kohistan district.
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Preliminary reports suggest that a Chinese official at the Dasu Dam scolded some employees for performing the Tarawaeeh prayers beyond the allotted time, which led to altercations and false accusations of blasphemy.
Confirming the arrest, SHO Naseeruddin said a First Information Report (FIR) against the Chinese national had been registered at the Komila Police Station, Dawn newspaper reported.
The complaint invokes Section 295-C, a copy of which is available at Dawn.com [use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet (Peace be Upon Him)] Pakistan Penal Code.
Blasphemy is a very sensitive issue in the country, as even rumors of blasphemous remarks can incite lynching mobs and deadly violence.
The defendant, who worked on the Dasu hydropower project, was detained by Comilla police on Sunday night after workers at the site accused him of blasphemy, Dawn newspaper reported.
Police identified the man as Tian from China and said he was arrested on Sunday night, hours after hundreds of residents and workers working on the project blocked Kara, Pakistan Today reported. Kunlun Highway, and rallied to demand his arrest.
Hundreds of people gathered again on Monday morning and stormed the main district police station, believing the man was hiding in the building. But officials feared the man might have been attacked and moved him to another area by military helicopter.
Local government officials in Dasu, about 180 kilometers north of the capital Islamabad, said the military and paramilitary forces had been deployed “to ensure the safety of the engineers,” Business Recorder reported.
The Dasu Dam construction contract was awarded to the China Gezhouba Group Corporation in 2017, and the project is under tight security.
Mob attacks on people accused of blasphemy and even lynching attacks are common in Pakistan. Rights groups say blasphemy charges are often used to intimidate religious minorities and calculate personal vendettas.
In February 2022, a middle-aged man was stoned to death by mobs in a remote village in the Khanewal district for allegedly desecrating the Koran.
The killing followed the same incident in Sialkot, where a Sri Lankan engineer was lynched on Dec. 3, 2021, by factory workers on charges of blasphemy, Dawn reported.
In January 2022, the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) stated in a report that as many as 89 citizens had been killed in 1,415 charges and blasphemy cases in the country since independence. From 1947 to 2021, 18 women and 71 men were extrajudicially executed for blasphemy, the report said. The charges were against 107 women and 1,308 men.
Of the total, 1,287 citizens were charged with blasphemy in 2011-21. “The actual number is believed to be higher because not all cases of blasphemy are reported by the media,” the report said, adding that more than 70 percent of the citizens accused were from Punjab, Dawn reported.
Abuse of blasphemy laws is often described as illegal by courts, the report said. It had said that the Islamabad High Court had previously recommended that the legislature amend the existing law to impose equal penalties on those who make false blasphemy charges. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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