https://arab.news/wvx8u
- The man was killed in an alleged police shootout in the Umerkot district located in southern Sindh province
- Amnesty International has also asked Pakistan for an impartial probe, fair trial of those responsible for killing
KARACHI: Pakistani rights activists and civil society members demanded a judicial inquiry by a sitting high court judge following the killing of a man accused of blasphemy by police officials in the southern Sindh province while holding a news conference at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday.
The incident happened in Pakistan’s Umerkot district where a man named Dr. Shahnawaz Kanbhar was shot dead by the police in an alleged shootout on September 19 after being accused of spreading blasphemous content on social media against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
This was the second such development since the beginning this month after a police officer killed a blasphemy suspect in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province while he was in custody.
The home minister in Sindh’s provincial administration, Zia-ul-Hasan Linjar, constituted a police inquiry committee to investigate the incident.
“We believe the accused was arrested and killed in a staged encounter [shootout],” Khizar Qazi, the head of the country’s independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Sindh, told Arab News after the news conference.
“We demand a judicial inquiry by a sitting high court judge and that the police officers involved be charged under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code [dealing with murder],” he added. “Justice must be served for the bereaved family.”
The government has already suspended eight low-ranking police personnel and two of their superior officials while the inquiry is being conducted.
Only a day ago, Amnesty International issued a statement against these “extrajudicial killings,” urging the Pakistani authorities to complete “a thorough, impartial and independent investigation into the incidents and ensure those responsible are prosecuted in fair and transparent trials.”
It also highlighted that four people accused of blasphemy have so far been killed in the country since May 2024.
Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Pakistan, where mobs have lynched people deemed to have insulted Islam.
Amnesty International also asked Pakistani authorities to repeal the law, saying it had “long helped perpetuate discrimination and violence.”