Stickers down, banners up

LAHORE:

The district administration and the city police took an unprecedented step last week by taking off stickers disparaging Ahmadis from a shop in Hafeez Centre and arrested its owner. Police charged him with deliberately hurting religious feelings.

Gulberg police arrested Abid Hassan Hashmi last Sunday for putting up stickers carrying degrading remarks for the Ahmadiyya community at entrance of his shop at Hafeez Centre. They also registered an FIR against him under Sections 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religious beliefs) of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).



It is worth mentioning that such stickers are also seen in public transport, even on the Lahore High Court premises. These are largely ignored by the general public. The move by the district administration and the city police was appreciated widely. However, the very next day, supporters of the shopkeeper came out to protest for their ‘hero’ and moved a bail application for him. The court granted him bail and ordered his release. The same day, large flexes bearing messages against the Ahmadiyya community were put up on the bars on a road fence near Hafeez Centre.



Radha Kishan

A Lahore High Court bench last week dismissed bail petitions of seven suspects held for lynching a Christian couple on false blasphemy allegations in Kot Radha Kishan. Arshad Mistri, Khalil, Muhammad Yaqoob, Amjad Ali, Waqas Bashir, Abdul Sattar and Abdul Qadoos had filed the petitions. Counsel for the petitioners said that they had no connection with the incident. He said all the petitioners were just passersby but police had implicated them in the case. A deputy prosecutor opposed the bail petitions and said the suspects were active participants of the mob. He said a joint investigation team had found the suspects guilty.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st,  2015.