A Pakistani man on trial for blasphemy was shot dead in a courtroom in the latest violent incident related to the country’s blasphemy laws.
Tahir Ahmed Naseem had been in prison since his arrest in 2018, allegedly after claiming that he was a prophet. He is a member of the Ahmedi sect, which is persecuted in Pakistan, where they have been officially declared non-Muslims.
The shooting took place in a high-security complex next to the Peshawar High Court.
“I was sitting in my office seat around 11:30 when I heard the shooting,” said Saeed Zaher, an attorney, who ran to the scene of the attack, saying the victim appeared to have been shot in the head. “The police caught the killer and the body lay on a bench in the courtroom.”
Members of the public can observe the trials, but for their attacker, smuggling a weapon represents a serious security violation. “A person who walks in with a gun and murders someone in court is very disturbing,” added Zaher.
Images circulating on social media appeared to show the alleged murderer, sitting barefoot on a bench under police guard, claiming that he had been ordered in a dream to kill Naseem. It also attacked judges who hear blasphemy cases.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive charge in Pakistan, a criminal offense that can carry the death penalty, but is sometimes used to settle personal accounts and has become extremely difficult for the justice system to handle.
The mere accusations have provoked violence and lynchings by the mafia; lower court judges feel unable to acquit defendants for fear of their lives; even a supreme court judge recused himself from a 2016 trial.
While the state has never executed anyone under blasphemy laws, at least 17 people convicted of blasphemy are on death row, and many others are serving life in prison for related crimes.
The case of Asia Bibi, a Christian agricultural worker who endured a decade-long ordeal on the charge of insulting the prophet Muhammad in a dispute with her neighbors, brought international attention to the problem of the laws.
Bibi was originally sentenced to death in 2010, although that verdict was later reversed. In 2011, the governor of the Punjab province, Salmaan Taseer, and the minority minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, were killed after they spoke up in defense of Bibi and called for reform of the blasphemy laws.
He was eventually granted asylum in Canada, but he still receives death threats.
Since 1990, the guards have been accused of murdering 65 people linked to blasphemy, according to an investigation compiled by the Pakistani investigation center of the Center for Research and Security Studies.
There were no government comments, a silence that veteran activist Ibn Abdur Rehman said was damning.
“Religious fanaticism is becoming unbearable in Pakistan. People are being killed in the name of religion. There are no checks or balances. The government is silent on this matter. This silence makes the government to blame, “said Rehman, an honorary spokesman for the Pakistan Human Rights Commission.
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