Court approves four day remand for blasphemy accused

Police say they need to recover some of the material associated with charges brought against him, determine motive.

ISLAMABAD: Police on Monday were given four days by a court to investigate suspect Dr Iftikhar A Sheikh over allegedly committing blasphemy.

A trial court handed him to the police on physical remand for further inquiry and recovery of alleged blasphemous material.

Sheikh, a resident of sector I-8/4, was booked under 295-C PPC on November 9 on charges of blasphemy after his nephew Sheikh Usman complained. His arrest was hastened after hundreds of local residents blocked a road in protest, a pressurising tactic that seemed to bear fruit.

A PhD scholar, Sheikh has not confessed of committing the crime. Sources close to investigations told The Express Tribune that Sheikh has denied writing or uttering some of the words attributed to him in the allegations.

“He said he did not write some of the lines that were put in the complaint while some he admitted writing but denied committing blasphemy,” said a police officer quoting the suspect. Sheikh said he was a devout Muslim and could not think of committing blasphemy.

The officer further said that police were unaware whether Sheikh possessed any nationality other than Pakistan’s. “No one including Sheikh himself has conveyed to the police that he is a foreign national,” said the officer.

Earlier, Police told the court they needed to recover some of the alleged blasphemous material from the suspect in addition to information from the suspect to ascertain the context in which the controversial lines had been written in order to determine the motive for the crime.

The police official said the matter of Sheikh’s alleged civil suit against his nephew for payment of damages worth Rs5 billion would also be investigated.

The court will decide whether he committed blasphemy or not, said the officer.