By Salman Masood
A Pakistani Hindu man has been charged with blasphemy against Islam, in the latest case under a controversial law that critics say has been used to persecute and marginalize religious minorities.
Ramesh Kumar Malhi, a veterinarian in the district of Mirpur Khas in the southern province of Sindh, was arrested on Monday and charged with blasphemy after a cleric said he had delivered medicine wrapped in verses from the Quran. Conviction under Pakistan’s blasphemy law carries a sentence of death.
After news of the arrest, riots broke out in the Phuladiyon neighborhood, where Mr. Malhi lives, and protesters burned shops belonging to Hindus. The police said on Thursday that six people had been arrested and that the situation had returned to normal. Mr. Malhi is now in judicial custody.
Hindus and Muslims have lived relatively peacefully for centuries in Mirpur Khas, officials said, and they described the alleged blasphemy as an aberration. But rights activists said that Hindus have faced increasing intolerance in recent years.
A local cleric, Muhammad Ishaq, filed the complaint against Mr. Malhi. Mr. Ishaq has distanced himself from the rioting and says that he helped to pacify the protesters.
Pakistan’s blasphemy law was passed under the military dictator Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s as a way to promote Islam and unite the country. Instead, rights groups say, it has increased fissures within society and led to acts of deadly violence, because those accused of blasphemy often face vigilante justice.
In many cases, the accusations stem from disputes over property or personal differences. Lawyers for blasphemy defendants have been attacked, as have judges presiding over such cases.
Earlier this month, Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who spent eight years on death row after being found guilty of blasphemy — a conviction that was later overturned — was able to leave the country for Canada. Her high-profile case had thrown a global spotlight on concerns that the blasphemy law was being misused to persecute religious minorities.
Hard-line Islamic parties have vehemently opposed any changes in the law, often turning to crippling street protests to make their point.
More than 1,500 people — most of them Christian or members of the Ahmadi Muslim minority — were charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy law from 1987 to 2017, according to the Center for Social Justice, a Lahore-based religious-minority rights group. At least 75 people were killed over that period in cases involving accusations of blasphemy, the group said.
A fact-finding committee made up of regional rights activists said it suspected foul play in Mr. Malhi’s case. “The veterinary doctor might have been trapped under a false allegation because he refused to treat cattle belonging to an influential Muslim family late night earlier this week,” said Kashif Bajeer, a member of a rights group. Mr. Bajeer called for a judicial panel to investigate the charges against Mr. Malhi.A local police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media said that an initial investigation had found that the alleged blasphemy was a deliberate act. The official said that a textbook of Quranic verses that was missing 49 pages was recovered from Mr. Malhi’s clinic.The police official also played down speculation that differences with the influential Muslim family led to the filing of the charges. “If there was some clash, some differences, why was it not brought to the notice of police earlier?” the official said.
Mangla Sharma, a Hindu lawmaker in the provincial assembly, said that episodes of intolerance toward the Hindu community had been increasing in Sindh, including abductions, forced conversions to Islam, and coerced marriages of Hindu girls.
Last month, she said, idols at a Hindu temple in Thatta, a neighboring town to Karachi, were smashed and the wreckage thrown in a sewer.
“Because of such incidents, non-Muslim communities are now reluctant to attend the gatherings of Muslims,” she said. “The government, religious clergy and peace activists should work together to counter the rise in religious intolerance in the region.” Mir Munawar Ali Taplur, a Muslim member of the national Parliament from Mirpur Khas, said that while no one should commit blasphemy, the rioting and vandalism that followed Mr. Malhi’s arrest should also be condemned. “This is not the way,” he said.
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