Pakistani court sentences Christian to death for publishing hateful content against Muslims

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — A court in Pakistan has sentenced a Christian man to death for sharing what he considered to be hateful anti-Muslim content on social media after one of the worst mob attacks against Christians in the eastern province of Punjab last year, his lawyer said on Monday, adding that he will appeal the verdict.

In August 2023, groups of Muslim men set fire to dozens of homes and churches in the town of Jaranwala after some residents claimed to have seen two Christian men tearing out pages from Islam’s holy book, the Quran, throwing them to the ground and writing insulting comments about it. other people. pages, authorities said. The two men were later arrested.

No casualties were reported at the time, as terrified Christians fled their homes to safer areas. Although police arrested more than 100 suspects following the attacks, it is unclear whether any of them were convicted.

Ehsan Shan, although not a party to the desecration, was accused of reposting the defaced pages of the Quran on his TikTok account, his lawyer Khurram Shahzad told The Associated Press on Monday. He also said he would appeal the death sentence handed down on Saturday by a court in the city of Sahiwal in Punjab province.

Amir Farooq, a police officer who arrested Shan, said the man shared “the hateful content at a sensitive time when authorities were already struggling to contain the violence.”

Naveed Kashif, a local priest at a church in Sahiwal, said that while he did not condone what Shan posted, he wondered “why the court ordered such an extreme verdict when people linked to the attacks have not yet been punished.”

Blasphemy accusations are common in Pakistan. Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. Although authorities have not yet carried out a death sentence for blasphemy, often the accusation alone can cause riots and incite crowds to violence, lynchings and murders.

Earlier this month, Nazir Masih, aged 72, died after being attacked by an angry mob in May following accusations of blasphemy.