Muzafarabad, (AJK) June 25, 2022: Following is a news item from the daily Dawn of June 26, 2022. It deserves to be placed on record for its relevance to FoRB in Pakistan in general and Azad Jammu and Kashmir in particular.
Man gets death penalty in blasphemy case
MUZAFARABAD: An additional district criminal court in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday handed down capital punishment and imposed a fine of Rs. 1 million on a man charged with blasphemy.
The decision under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code was pronounced by the court comprising Judges Mohammad Ikram Malik and Ajmal Mahmood Shaheen in Dhirkot subdivision of Bagh district.
In the challan, the police informed the court that one Hafiz Zaheer Ahmed, a school teacher who would also deliver sermons in a local mosque, noticed a social media post by Muhammad Shafique in which he had described himself as a prophet and had thus committed blasphemy.
Reproducing the Urdu language post, the police named some 23 people in the challan, saying that they and countless others across the globe had read that blasphemous content, which had triggered a strong reaction and exasperation among the people of faith, particularly local residents.
An FIR was registered against Shafique on June 26, 2020 after approval of the DIG police of Poonch and the district judge, with Dhirkot police as complainant.
