ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, says the killing of Abdul Ali inside a police station in Quetta is another in a long list of cases underlining why Pakistan’s blasphemy laws must be repealed…
On 12th September, Pakistani police officer Syed Mohammed Khan Sarhadi shot and killed Abdul Ali inside the Cantonment Police Station in Quetta, in Balochistan Province, Pakistan.
Mr Ali had been accused of making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad – that is, blasphemy – by local residents the day before, and since blasphemy is considered a crime in Pakistan, he had been taken into police custody for further investigation.
An image of Abdul Ali before he was fatally shot. PICTURE: Courtesy of CSW
Residents reportedly surrounded the police station upon Mr Ali’s arrest, demanding that the police hand him over to them so that they could kill him. At one point a man reportedly threw a grenade at the police station, and a group of Islamist extremists briefly blocked a key road in the city, demanding Mr Ali’s punishment.
Regardless of whether he had committed the ‘crime’ of which he had been accused– and indeed of whether it should be considered a crime in the first place – Mr Ali should have been safe in police custody. He should have been granted the fundamental right to a fair trial and due process afforded to him under Article 10A of the Pakistani Constitution, but Officer Khan Sarhadi denied him this right by posing as a relative to gain access to the facility in which he was being held before proceeding to fatally shoot him.
Incidents of violence arising from blasphemy accusations occur frequently in Pakistan. Earlier this year this column highlighted the tragic passing of 73-year-old Christian businessman Lazar (Nazir) Masih, who died in hospital from injuries sustained in a violent beating at the hands of a thousand strong mob after he was falsely accused of burning pages of the Quran.
The day that piece was published, another man was lynched in the Madyan area of the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province after he was similarly accused of desecrating the Quran. The victim – an unnamed tourist – was dragged from the police station in which he was being held by a mob who proceeded to set fire to the premises and shoot, kill and burn the body of the accused.
Both cases highlighted the failure of Pakistan’s police to protect those accused of blasphemy, with Mr Masih’s nephew notably accusing the police who had initially detained his uncle of handing him over to the mob that eventually took his life. However, the killing of Mr Ali by a serving officer brought such concerns into even greater focus.
And then it happened again.
On 18th September – less than a week after Mr Ali was murdered – police officers in the city of Mirpur Khas, Sindh Province, shot and killed blasphemy suspect Dr Shah Nawaz Kumbhar, who had attempted to go into hiding after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad and sharing blasphemous content on social media.
Police initially reported that Dr Kumbhar was killed in a shoot-out that ensued after they attempted to stop and search two men on a motorcycle. The local police chief said that the officers were unaware that the man they had shot was Dr Kumbhar until after the second individual had fled the scene, and another official alleged that he was in fact killed by his companion. However, a government investigation later concluded that the doctor was extrajudicially executed in a ‘fake encounter’ orchestrated by the security forces shortly after he gave himself up.
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While the government’s intervention marks a rare and welcome development in a country where blasphemy-related killings are largely committed with impunity, the fact remains that the Pakistani police and authorities must do far more to protect those accused of blasphemy from extremists who would have them killed without due process, and certainly to ensure that there are no such extremists within their own ranks.
Justice must be served in these cases. Dr Kumbhar’s killers must be held to account, as must the zealots who seized his body when it was handed over to his family and set it on fire, and Officer Khan Sarhadi – who was released from prison later in September after Mr Ali’s family and tribal elders agreed to forgive him – must still face consequences for his actions.
In the long run, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws must be repealed. They are completely incompatible with the national and international commitments to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression outlined in the Pakistani constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which it is party, and a dangerous driver of the religious extremism which is destroying the social fabric of the nation.
Ellis Heasley is public affairs officer at UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW.
