Psychiatric patient sent to jail on charges of disrespecting the Holy Quran

Family says a pesh imam had told them to bury the pages after burning them

KARACHI: A 32-year-old man, arrested two days ago on charges of disrespecting the sanctity of the Holy Quran, was sent to jail on judicial remand by the Judicial Magistrate East on Saturday.

Idrees Khan was arrested by the Landhi police after his neighbours handed him over for allegedly setting leaves of the holy book on fire. According to his father Essa Khan, a day before the incident, he and Idrees visited a pesh imam of a mosque in the area, who asked them to bury the leaves of the Holy Quran after setting them on fire. “The pesh imam assured us that it was not a sin,” he said. “Upon his assurance, we obeyed him.”

However, a woman saw Idrees and raised a hue and cry as he went about the task. Around 250 residents gathered and beat him before hustling him off to the police. Enraged people gathered outside the police station to force the police to register a case (FIR No. 57/11).

The qari or pesh imam, who did not want his name given, said that the father and son had indeed come to ask him about dealing with damaged sheafs from the Quran. “I told them it was customary to dispose of old, damaged, fragile and unreadable pages into the sea,” he said. “I never asked them to set them ablaze and bury them.”

Residents have demanded the death penalty for Idrees, with some going as far as to demand he be buried alive.

Maulana Qari Zahoor Ahmed, a complainant in the case, told The Express Tribune that it was the family’s fault for visiting a prayer leader. “That prayer leader is not a mufti or aalim,” he said.

Idrees’ father is a milkman who runs a dairy farm near his residence in Landhi Sector 37C. Idrees is the third of five children and used to help his father. The family is prominent in the area and has been living there for over seven years. While defending Idrees, the family said that he has a psychiatric ailment and had no intention of disrespecting the book. “My son is a psychiatric patient,” said his father Essa. “He has been in treatment for 15 years. I had thought his psychological condition would improve after marriage and his medical treatment was being continued but it did not work. I even went to shrines [to try and help him].”

Investigator ASI Rashid Solangi said that according to hospital documentation, Idrees was indeed suffering from psychaitric conditions. “I took him to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where doctors confirmed that he was a psychiatric patient,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2011.