ISLAMABAD: Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam and its Prophet Muhammad can provoke death at the hands of vigilantes.
How common is violence in Pakistan over blasphemy, and why is it such a sensitive issue?
Since 1990, at least 85 people have been murdered in relation to blasphemy allegations, according to local media and researchers.
They have included individuals accused of blasphemy, their children, lawyers, judges hearing their cases, and others.
Those killed include members of religious minorities, prominent politicians, students, clerics and the mentally ill.
They have been burned to death, hanged by mobs, shot dead in courtrooms and hacked to death on the side of the road, among other forms of attack.
Since 2011, when Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was shot dead by his bodyguard over a call for the blasphemy laws to be reformed, mainstream debate over the issue has been all but impossible.
Today, spurious blasphemy allegations are often levelled as a way to pressure opponents in disputes — including by top political leaders.
Taseer’s killer was lauded by many, and the murder was followed by the rise of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a far-right party with widespread support that calls for blasphemers to be beheaded.
The rise of the TLP has seen an increase in blasphemy cases filed on ideological grounds.
The majority of those accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are Muslims, but members of religious minorities face an especially acute threat, according to rights groups.
Christians — who form about 1.3 percent of Pakistan’s 250 million population — have been at particular risk, with neighborhoods in the cities of Lahore, Gojra, Jaranwala and the capital Islamabad burned down or attacked following blasphemy allegations in recent years.
When anti-blasphemy violence breaks out, local police have been seen standing aside and allowing mobs to carry out their attacks — often out of fear that they might be branded as “blasphemers” themselves for not allowing lynchings.
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws — some inherited from its British former colonial rulers — were little-used until the 1970s and ‘80s, when they were strengthened and expanded to include several clauses specific to insulting Islam.
As of 2023, there are at least 53 people in custody across Pakistan on blasphemy charges, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Judges hearing blasphemy cases have reported facing pressure to hand down convictions, regardless of the evidence, fearing being targeted by physical violence if they don’t.
According to current laws — which were strengthened once more this year — the offense of insulting the Prophet Muhammad carries a mandatory death sentence, while “defiling” the Qur’an carries life imprisonment.
