Lahore, January 2022: Mr. MM Iqbal Hashmi, Mr. Shiraz Ahmad, and others were booked by Cyber Crimes Police Station Lahore on June 20, 2019 under FIR 88 under PPCs 295-A, 298-C, PECA-11 for allegedly creating group ‘Sindh Salamat’ and sharing Ahmadiyya content in it.
Mr. Iqbal Hashmi was arrested but was released on bail on August 24, 2019.
Mr. Shiraz Ahmad was arrested from his home on February 25, 2021.
One, Mr. Zaheer Ahmad, Ahmadi from Lahore implicated in another religion-based case was released on bail on February 23, 2021, but was immediately re-arrested in this case, although he was not even named in this case.
A sessions court rejected the plea for bail of both the accused mentioned above on March 30, 2021.
The opponents opposed Mr. Iqbal Hashmi’s plea for bail, and an ASJ rejected the plea and ordered his arrest on August 9, 2021. Earlier, on request of the opponents, Judge Syed Ali Abbas ASJ Lahore ordered that the deadly section PPC 295-C be added to his charge sheet.
As a result, all these three are incarcerated in Camp Jail, Lahore.
Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh of LHC heard the plea for bail of the three detained Ahmadis and rejected their plea on January 12, 2022.
Mr. Iqbal Hashmi etc. case was initiated under PPC 295-A, however, with passage of time, it is blown big with PPCs 295-C and 295-B added to it that provides for the death penalty and imprisonment for life respectively. Bails have been denied even by the High Court.
The only recourse for the detained accused now is to approach the honorable Supreme Court.
While there is life, there’s hope’, he cried:
‘Then why such haste?’ so groaned and died.
(As did the detained Mr. Asghar Ali Kalaar, Ahmadi on January 10, 2022 after vomiting blood,)
