A 70-year-old Christian grandfather was thrown in jail on allegedly fabricated blasphemy charges. On the same day, a court acquitted 106 Muslims accused of attacking a Christian colony.
The Morning Star News reported that on Jan. 28, 2017, police raided the home of Mukhtar Masih after he was accused by a mosque leader in Punjab province of writing two letters containing derogatory remarks about the Quran and the Islamic prophet Muhammad, police records show.
Although Masih was the only one charged with blasphemy, the police also took his entire family in custody, a source said. His family members were later released but the old man remained in detention, the source added.
The source told Morning Star News that the charges against Masih were fabricated by his Muslim neighbours who wanted to seize his property.
In Pakistan, sources said blasphemy laws are often used to settle personal grievances. Moreover, Islamist groups and lawyers are known to exert pressure on the police and courts to convict those accused of blasphemy, even pushing for the imposition of the harshest punishments possible for the accused.
On the same day, an Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore acquitted 106 Muslims accused of a flagrant attack on a Christian community called Joseph Colony in March 2013.
The attack was triggered by a blasphemy accusation against a resident in the community.
The judge was forced to acquit the suspects after the prosecution witnesses failed to recognise any of them.
It was not explained how this could have happened considering that there were more than 80 prosecution witnesses in the case, with 63 of them filing statements about the attack that destroyed more than 150 homes.
Pakistan has risen in rank from last year's number 6 to this year's number 4 on the Open Doors USA's World Watch list of top Christian persecuting countries.
The organisation has described Christian persecution in Pakistan as "extreme" and "violent," with Christians targeted for murder, bombings, abduction of women, rape, forced marriages and eviction from home and country. Unjust and arbitrary blasphemy laws are also used to punish Christians and prevent evangelism, it says.
Earlier this month, a 12-year local Christian schoolgirl was found dead on the banks of a canal in Pakistan. The police said she committed suicide by jumping into the canal. However, her family said there was evidence to show that she was actually kidnapped, raped, and then murdered.
