A Christian man sentenced to death by an anti-terror court in Pakistan on charges of blasphemy will appeal the verdict, his lawyer has said on Saturday. The 36-year-old was found guilty on Friday evening over charges of desecrating the Quran in the town of Jaranwala in the eastern Punjab province.
The attack, carried out in 2023, ignited rioting in the predominantly Christian area. Angry mobs torched dozens of churches and hundreds of houses, driving thousands of residents out of their homes in fear.
“We will appeal in the High Court against the judgment,” Akmal Bhatti, the man’s lawyer, said in a release to Reuters. Bhatti asserted the right to a fair trial and due process, hoping that the higher judiciary will hear the case without prejudice.
While blasphemy is a capital crime in Pakistani law, the state has not yet carried out anyone for committing the crime. But charges do find themselves inevitably involving vigilante violence, which includes lynchings.
Adding to religious tumult, there was another incident elsewhere in Karachi on Friday where the mob killed, in very cruel fashion, up to 200 people brutalizing a 47-year-old belonging to the Ahmadi sect. The attack was by use of sticks and bricks upon being outside his motor vehicle repair garage. Ahmadis, designated under Pakistani law as non-Muslim, are regular sufferers of persecution as well as accusations of blasphemy.
The increase in such attacks has also prompted concerns from human rights groups, demanding increased protection for religious minorities and amendments to the misuse-prone blasphemy laws used to settle scores or trigger communal violence.
The plea is likely to attract international attention as international monitor groups keep track of religious freedom and minority rights in Pakistan.
