Pakistan: Elderly Man Accused Of Blasphemy Gunned Down Inside Peshawar Court

In a tragic incident, an elderly man was shot dead during the hearing of a blasphemy case against him in a local court at Peshawar Judicial Complex on Wednesday (29 July), reports Dawn.

As per the report, the deceased Tahir Ahmad Naseem was arrested two years ago on the charges of blasphemy for claiming to be a prophet and was brought to the court from Peshawar Central Jail. He died on the spot after being shot six times in the court of Additional Session Judge Shaukatullah Khan.

A lawyer, present inside in the courtroom, was quoted by the report as saying, “During the hearing of the case, the complainant said that the accused was an Ahmadi and asked him to recite the Kalima-e-Tayyaba.” After this the complainant fired at the elderly man and killed him.

As per a spokesperson of the Ahmadiyya community, the deceased was born in the persecuted Ahmadi sect, however he later left the sect and claimed to be a prophet himself.

The leader also suggested that the deceased was mentally ill and that he was unaware of the consequences of his acts.

The deceased elder man was charged under Section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), Section 295-B (defiling etc. of the Holy Quran), Section 295-C (use of derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad PBUH) and Section 298 (uttering words etc., with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Multiple human rights groups have raised fingers at the Pakistan’s hardline blasphemy laws over the years. They have stated that the laws are used to disproportionately target the minority communities while encouraging extra-judicial killings.

Between 1987 and 2017, 1,500 people in Pakistan were charged with blasphemy and 75 of them were killed, as per the Center for Social Justice.