AN INQUIRY revealed that a doctor accused of blasphemy was killed in a staged police shootout last week in Pakistan, following violent protests by Islamists, according to a minister last Thursday (26).
The minister ordered criminal proceedings against the involved officers.
This was the second such incident of a killing in police custody within a week. Dr Shah Nawaz, working in Umerkot, southern Pakistan, went into hiding after being accused by local clerics of blasphemy due to a Facebook post. His family stated that the post was made on an old, hacked account.
Despite violent protests that saw attacks on police stations and vehicle burnings led by the clerics, Nawaz surrendered to the police after assurances he would be able to prove his innocence. However, his family claims he was subsequently killed in a contrived shootout.
“The inquiry determined it was a fake shootout and a custodial death,” said Zia Lanjar, home minister of Sindh province, citing a 31-page report during a news conference.
The implicated officers include a deputy inspector general and two senior officers.
Human rights groups noted that local clerics and some politicians celebrated the officers’ actions, even garlanding them and showering them with rose petals at events.
While Reuters could not independently verify these accounts or the authenticity of the related social media posts, Lanjar expressed his government’s opposition to extremism.
Thousands of human rights activists have rallied against the killing, demanding justice and chanting slogans against Islamist extremism.
Blasphemy is punishable by death in predominantly Muslim Pakistan. No one has been executed by the state for the crime, but the issue is so sensitive that dozens of people accused of blasphemy have been lynched by mobs before a trial could begin.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom says the South Asian country is one of the world’s strictest and most frequent enforcers of blasphemy laws.
