Startling Blasphemy Arrest: Chinese Worker Airlifted to Safety in Pakistan

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Authorities in Pakistan arrested a Chinese man on the night of April 16th for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad and Islam. This charge could carry the death sentence if proven guilty.

The police only identified the suspect as Mr. Tian from China. He was arrested shortly after hundreds of residents and laborers in the town of Komela blocked a critical highway and protested to call for his arrest.

According to the local police Naseer Khan, the rally happened near the Dasu Dam site, which is the country’s biggest hydropower project. A Chinese construction firm has undertaken the main civil works for the dam since 2018. Komela is located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan.

Video footage showing the angry mob protesting outside a housing compound for the project’s Chinese and Pakistani workers while chanting “God is great” went viral on social media. The video also showed security forces firing in the air to disperse the crowd.

Khan also said Pakistani police officers swiftly responded to the demonstrations by “rescuing and arresting” Mr. Tian before transporting him to the northwestern city of Abbottabad through an army helicopter.

The Chinese national was airlifted out of fear that residents would attack him. Khan also said that the security of the other Chinese engineers and construction workers had been tightened in the town, where the situation became calm after Mr. Tian’s arrest.

The accusations of blasphemy rose from a workplace disagreement, as narrated by Khan. The Chinese national allegedly became upset and reprimanded two local drivers because they took too much time praying at work. Other workers also claimed Mr. Tian insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

After the arrest, work resumed at the Dasu Dam, and the blocked highway was reopened. Many Chinese and Pakistani workers are working on the project as part of Water Vision 2025 by Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA).

If investigators found Mr. Tian, who handles the project’s heavy transport, guilty of insulting Islam, he would be tried under Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws. The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan and the Chinese government have not responded regarding the incident yet.

Although it would seem to be the first time a foreign national was arrested in Komela, it wouldn’t be the first time a foreign national faced accusation of blasphemy.

In 2021, the world was shocked upon hearing the news of an extremist mob lynching and burning the body of a Sri Lankan factory manager in Sialkot for allegedly desecrating posters bearing the name of the Prophet Muhammad, in what is now known as the Sialkot lynching case.

In the same year, work was temporarily suspended in the Dasu Dam after a suicide bombing targeted a bus carrying Chinese and Pakistani workers in the district of Kohistan, killing 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals.

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