Pakistan’s Blasphemy Crisis: Police Officer Murders Blasphemy Accused

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A Pakistani police officer shot and killed a man who was being held in custody after he was accused of blasphemy, authorities in Pakistan reported on September 12th. 

The fatal shooting happened inside a highly protected police station in Quetta, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. The incident occurred after the victim, a Muslim hotel owner identified as Abdul Ali, was arrested for reportedly making derogatory statements against the Prophet Muhammad. 

Muhammad Baloch, the senior police superintendent in Quetta, said authorities arrested the policeman involved in the shooting and filed a murder case against him. 

On September 11th, witnesses said that an angry mob of dozens of residents quickly surrounded the police detention facility when Ali was held in the Kharotabad neighborhood and demanded the authorities hand over Ali to them so that they could kill them.

Police reported that the protesters even threw a grenade at the building, though the resulting blast did not cause any injuries. They said the mob violence forced them to transfer Ali to the police station in the central garrison area in Quetta, where Ali was fatally shot and killed “inside the lockup by an on-duty policeman.”

In the Pakistani capital Islamabad, Abdul Shakoor Khan, an Islamist senator, expressed solidarity with the arrested policeman while speaking in the parliament’s upper house and even vowed to help him get a lawyer for his legal battle.

“We will not tolerate anyone issuing blasphemous remarks against the Holy Prophet,” Khan said.

Meanwhile, a man named Dr. Shahnawaz was shot and killed in an alleged encounter with the police in the city of Mirpur Khas in the southeastern province of Sindh, bordered by Balochistan to the west. Dr. Shahnawaz was a resident of Umarkot and had been accused of posting blasphemous content on social media, sparking anger among certain religious groups.

The outrage even led to a large number of protesters gathering outside the local press club to demand his arrest, with a police mobile van even being set on fire during the demonstration. The situation only calmed down after Umerkot’s senior police superintendent reassured the protesters that they would be filing a case against Dr. Shahnawaz.

However, the situation took a turn for the worse for Dr. Shahnawaz after police officers conducted a raid to arrest him. Dr. Shahnawaz was reportedly hiding with a friend, who was armed. The police said the accused opened fire to evade arrest, and during the shootout, Dr. Shahnawaz was killed by a bullet fired by his friend. 

Although blasphemy remains a highly controversial and sensitive topic in Pakistan, and mob violence against anyone accused of blasphemy is relatively common, the killing of Abdul Ali by a police officer and Dr. Shahnawaz during a shootout with the police was the first of their kind. 

Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan, though no suspect has officially been executed yet after being handed down the death sentence.

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