Lahore, March 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 the group ‘Sindh Salamat’ and sharing Ahmadiyya content in it.
Mr. 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. Zahir 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.
The plea for bail of the accused mentioned above was rejected on March 30, 2021.
The opponents opposed Mr. Hashmi’s plea for bail, and an ASJ rejected the plea and ordered his arrest on August 9, 2021. Earlier, at the opponents’ request, 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.
LHC heard the plea for bail and rejected it on January 12, 2022.
Iqbal Hashmi etc. case was initiated under PPC 295-A; however, with time, it is blown big with PPCs 295-C, and 295-B added to it that provide for the death penalty and imprisonment for life, respectively. Their plea for bail was then made to the Supreme Court.
A three-member bench of SC was appointed to hear the appeal against the decision of the High Court. SC issued notices to the parties on February 15, 2022, to appear on March 9, 2022. There was no proceedings due to the absence of the prosecutor because of his illness. It is years and months that these three Ahmadis are behind bars on religion-based charges.
