Pakistan: 22-year-old student sentenced to death, another student sentenced to life imprisonment for offensive religious comments

Islamabad, dated 09 March 2024, Saturday

In Pakistan, a student has been sentenced to death for posting a message on WhatsApp that hurt religious sentiments.

A court in the province of Punjab has given this verdict and said that the 22-year-old student had shared videos and pictures on WhatsApp that hurt religious sentiments.

In another case, a 17-year-old student was also charged with similar charges and sentenced to life imprisonment by the court. This student has escaped the death penalty as he is a minor.

In Pakistan, the law against hurting religious sentiments provides for the death penalty. However, in this country, in such cases, a mob of people beats the accused to death in public.

It may be mentioned that a complaint was lodged against these two students in 2022 and the complainant said that I received offensive religious pictures and videos from three different mobile numbers.

However, the lawyer of the accused students says that the students are being falsely implicated. Among these, the father of the student who has been sentenced to death will appeal in the Lahore High Court.

A Hindu teacher in Pakistan was also imprisoned for five years on similar charges and the court recently acquitted him due to lack of evidence.

In August last year, two brothers from a Christian family were accused of making religious comments and angry mobs ransacked the homes of 80 members of the Christian community and 19 churches.