Three get death penalty for blasphemy on social media

Another accused jailed for 10 years; four accused declared absconders

ISLAMABAD:

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday sentenced three accused to death for their involvement in uploading blasphemous content onthe social media and jailed another accused for 10 years along with Rs100,000 fine for disrespecting the religion.

ATC Judge Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan announced the verdict which was reserved earlier. The court announced the sentence to the accused under sections 295-A, 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section G-7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

The three accused, Nasir Ahmed, Abdul Waheed and Rana Noman, were awarded death sentence while Prof Anwaar Ahmed was awarded the jail term and the fine. The accused were brought to the ATC from Adiala Jail for the verdict.

The case was registered by the Islamabad Police on the directives of then Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Shaukat Aziz Saddiqi on March 19, 2017, on the complaint of Hafiz Ahtisham. The ATC had reserved its ruling on December 15, after conclusion of arguments from both sides.

The court had also declared other accused including Tayyab Sardar, Rao Qaiser Shahzad, Faraz Pervaiz and Pervaiz Iqbal as absconders and had issued their non-bailable arrest warrants against them.