
Police in Pakistan on Saturday night (Aug. 19) charged a Christian with blasphemy for uploading on TikTok a video of content that last week led to attacks on Christian homes and businesses in Jaranwala more than 100 kilometers away, sources said.
Police in Pakistan on Saturday night (Aug. 19) charged a Christian with blasphemy for uploading on TikTok a video of content that last week led to attacks on Christian homes and businesses in Jaranwala more than 100 kilometers away, sources said.
A government concession to demands by a Muslim extremist political party to allow blasphemy charges under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism laws has raised fears of more injustice for those accused under the harsh statutes, sources said.
A Catholic who spent more than three years in jail on a baseless blasphemy charge had to pay an exorbitant amount of bail for release this month, just one example of gross injustices against him and other Christians, his attorney said.
Two Christians accused of blasphemy, including one who has spent four years in jail, have obtained bail from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, sources said.
A Christian bicycle mechanic in Lahore, Pakistan, was reportedly sentenced to death last week on baseless charges of blasphemy.
A judge changed a Christian’s life prison term under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws into the death sentence last week, while the Pakistan Supreme Court granted historic bail to another Christian held on similar charges, sources said.
According to sources, Hindu extremists in northern India disrupted a house church service, interrogated a pastor and signalled police to arrest him and his wife on baseless charges of fraudulent conversion.
A Christian in Pakistan incarcerated for nearly 10 years on a false blasphemy conviction was released from prison on Nov. 13 after a high court acquitted him, but quietly to avoid Islamist outrage, his attorney said.
A Pakistani court has upheld the life sentence of a Christian convicted of blasphemy despite the prosecution's alleged manipulation of evidence and failure to establish his involvement.
According to sources, a Christian couple acquitted by a high court in Pakistan fear for their lives as Islamic extremists have started a campaign calling for their murders ahead of their yet unconfirmed release from jail.