RAWALPINDI: A seventy-year-old man sentenced to death for blasphemy was shot during firing by a constable within the premises of Adiyala prison on Thursday.
Mohammad Asghar, a British citizen whose defence had stated that he had mental health problems, was convicted and sentenced in January this year for writing letters claiming to be a prophet.
Asghar was shot at by Constable Yousuf of the Elite Force on Thursday following which the injured inmate was shifted to the district headquarter hospital, jail authorities said.
They added that Asghar was in a critical condition in the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU).
“The inmate was shot at by the constable…he has been taken to a hospital,” SP Investigation Haroon Joya told Dawn.
Joya added that prison authorities will begin legal proceedings against the constable involved in the shooting.
Asghar was convicted and sentenced to death after the court rejected defence claims that he was suffering from mental health problems.
However, a statement from the British charity Reprieve, which has been helping Asghar’s family, had said that the 70-year-old was detained by authorities in Scotland in 2010 because of mental problems and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 per cent of the population is Muslim and insulting the Holy Prophet (PBUH) can carry the death penalty.
Rights groups say the tough blasphemy laws are frequently abused to settle personal scores.
Asghar’s family has said that the allegations against him stem from a property dispute with one of his tenants.
Family of blasphemy-accused Briton appeals for help
ISLAMABAD: The family of a mentally ill British man sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy has urged London to intervene to seek his release.
Mohammad Asghar was sentenced by a court in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, last week for writing letters claiming to be a prophet.
The special court inside Rawalpindi's Adiyala Jail, where Asghar is being held, rejected defence claims that Asghar has mental health problems.
But a statement from the British charity Reprieve, which is helping Asghar’s family, said the 69-year-old was detained by authorities in Scotland in 2010 because of mental problems and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
“We are really upset and concerned that they will never release him and that he will die in jail. He has already attempted suicide unsuccessfully,” Asghar's family said in the statement released on Monday.
“We just want him back home where hopefully he can be treated for and recover from his mental illness.
“We urge the British Government to intervene and bring him home to us where he will be safe.”
Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 per cent of the population is Muslim and insulting the Holy Prophet (PBUH) can carry the death penalty.
But the country has had a de facto moratorium on civilian hangings since 2008. Only one person has been executed since then, a soldier convicted by court martial.
Rights groups say the tough blasphemy laws are frequently abused to settle personal scores.
The family says the allegations against Asghar stem from a property dispute with one of his tenants.
Reprieve also complained that Asghar's legal team had been denied access to him since his conviction.
Blasphemy law use on rise, led by Pakistan: US group
WASHINGTON: Governments around the world are increasingly invoking blasphemy laws, with Pakistan by far the country that jails the most citizens for allegedly attacking religion, a US report said Thursday.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government advisory panel, voiced fear that the rise in laws banning blasphemy was leading to punishment of people who merely express different religious views or who have been falsely accused.
The report found Pakistan used its controversial law at a level “incomparable” to anywhere else, listing 14 people on death row and 19 others serving life sentences for alleged blasphemy against Islam.
Pakistan has never carried out the death penalty for blasphemy, but the report charged that the law, and the lack of procedural safeguards, has contributed to an alarming number of mob attacks and vigilante violence against minorities.
Egypt has seen a rise in use of such laws since the 2011 overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak, the report said.
Citing local activists, the report found blasphemy cases involved 63 people in 2011 and 2012 and disproportionately targeted the Christian minority.
The US commission opposes blasphemy laws, saying they “protect beliefs over individuals.”
”This trend of greater usage of blasphemy laws will surely lead to increased violations of the freedoms of religion and expression,” said Knox Thames, the commission's director of policy and research.
“Governments will jail people, and extremists may kill others in the defense of undefined notions of religious sentiment,” he said, calling blasphemy laws “inherently problematic.”
Blasphemy is a sensitive issue for many Muslims. In Islam images of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) are forbidden.
Pakistan in the past has urged the United Nations to make blasphemy an internationally recognized offense.
The commission report also highlighted Bangladesh's arrests of three self-professed atheists last year and said Indonesia has arrested more than 120 people since 2003 for blasphemy, although they generally have not been prosecuted.
While blasphemy cases took place mostly in the Islamic world, the commission noted that Russia last year enacted a blasphemy law after punk band Pussy Riot put on a performance critical of President Vladimir Putin inside a cathedral.
The report also pointed to Greece, where a man was arrested in 2012 for blasphemy after mocking a late Orthodox monk on Facebook.
