ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: The United States urged Pakistan on Thursday to take action over the killing of an American national in a crowded courtroom as he faced trial for blasphemy.
Tahir Ahmed Naseem was shot multiple times at close range as he appeared in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday.
"We urge Pakistan to take immediate action and pursue reforms that will prevent such a shameful tragedy from happening again," the US State Department said in a tweet.
As Naseem's arraignment began before the judge, a young man in the room pulled out a handgun and shot him in the head, officials and witnesses said. The young man was arrested on the spot.
On Thursday, supporters of a hard-line Islamist group held a protest rally in Peshawar calling for the release of the suspected shooter, saying he had defended his religion.
The aftermath of the killing, captured on video and shared on social media, showed Naseem slumped over in a chair beside the judge's bench, as other shackled prisoners, some with bloodied clothes, were taken from the room.
"The young man who shot him had no remorse," Latif Afridi, who heads the Peshawar High Court Bar Association, told Reuters.
Afridi questioned how the man managed to get a gun into the court given that all visitors are checked thoroughly at three different points.
"It is likely someone who can go without being checked, perhaps a police officer or a lawyer, handed the shooter the gun after he entered," he said.
According to the charge sheet against Naseem, seen by Reuters, the American was in contact with a student at an Islamic school in Pakistan on Facebook and told him he was a messiah sent by God.
Naseem later met the student in Peshawar, after which police arrested him and charged him with a number of crimes, including blasphemy, which can bring the death penalty in Pakistan.
US urges Pakistan to act after American charged with blasphemy shot in court
https://arab.news/y5nbg
US urges Pakistan to act after American charged with blasphemy shot in court
- The US State Department asks Islamabad to 'pursue reforms that will prevent such a shameful tragedy from happening again'
- Tahir Ahmed Naseem claimed to be a 'messiah sent by God' while talking to a seminary student on internet
Amid Middle East tensions, Pakistan says viral notice on temporary port shutdown is fake
- Viral fake notification claimed Pakistan suspended port entries until Mar. 10 over Middle East situation
- Tensions have surged in the region after US and Israel bombed Iran and killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s information ministry on Thursday dismissed as fabricated a notice circulating on social media platforms about Islamabad suspending all types of entry at the country’s ports, clarifying that no such order has been issued.
The clarification came after a notification that stated it was from the Cabinet Division went viral on social media. It claimed that the maritime affairs ministry, on the instructions of the Prime Minister’s Office, decided to order the temporary suspension of all types of entries at Pakistan’s ports till Mar. 10.
The notification claimed that the decision was applicable on the Karachi Port Trust, Port Qasim Authority, Gwadar Port Authority, Port of Pasni, Port of Ormara and the Port of Jiwani, saying the decision had been taken “in the interest of national security and strategic preparedness.”
“The notification is FABRICATED,” the information ministry’s Fact Checker account wrote on X. “No such order has been issued by the Cabinet Division or the Ministry of Maritime Affairs.”
Tensions have surged in the Middle East since Feb. 28, when the US and Israel launched surprise airstrikes against Iran after months of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iran confirmed on Sunday its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in the strikes as the Middle Eastern country retaliated with drone and missile attacks against US military installations in the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan has dismissed fears of a fuel shortage in the country, after the Strait of Hormuz was shut by Iran amid escalating hostilities between Tehran, the US and Israel. The conflict has disrupted tanker traffic through one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints.
Pakistan, which imports most of its fuel from Middle Eastern nations, has moved quickly to ensure its stock of petroleum products does not take a massive hit.
Pakistan has asked Saudi Arabia for help in securing crude oil supplies through the Red Sea port of Yanbu, the petroleum ministry said on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority has also allowed oil companies to regulate supply to their retail outlets to prevent hoarding and artificial price hikes as tensions in the Gulf surge.
