World News | Pak Senate's Former Employee Arrested on Blasphemy Charges
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. A former employee of the Senate was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly insulting the Prophet on his Facebook page in Pakistan's Punjab province, police said.
Lahore, Sep 24 (PTI) A former employee of the Senate was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly insulting the Prophet on his Facebook page in Pakistan's Punjab province, police said.
Tauseef Shahzad, who is in his 20s, has been booked under section 295 (C) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, police said.
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Section 295C forbids insults to the Prophet. The minimum penalty is a mandatory life sentence; the maximum is death.
In 1990, Pakistan's Federal Shariah Court ruled that the death penalty should be mandatory.
Shahzad is a resident of Cheechawatni city, some 240kms from Lahore.
According to the FIR, Sub-Inspector Shamsul Hasan, during night duty, opened Facebook and found blasphemous posts uploaded from Shahzad's account.
On Hasan's complaint, a blasphemy case was registered against the suspect, who was arrested on Tuesday.
Police said they have taken Shahzad's wife and three children into custody to save them from any public reaction.
In Pakistan, blasphemy is punishable by death or life imprisonment.
Frequently, crowds assassinate the blasphemy accused before the matter even reaches the courtroom. Blasphemy charges are frequently levelled against people with mental conditions and religious minorities.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)