Arusa Khan’s son was chatting on WhatsApp, but suddenly found himself the target of “vigilant” investigators, who accused him of online blasphemy, a crime that carries the death penalty in Pakistan.
The 27-year-old is one of hundreds of youths accused in Pakistani courts of making blasphemous statements online or in WhatsApp groups, leading to arrests in recent years.
Rights groups and police say many cases are being heard by private “vigilante groups” led by lawyers and supported by volunteers who search the Internet for criminals.
Families of young Pakistanis, including doctors, engineers, lawyers and accountants, say their relatives were tricked by strangers into sharing blasphemous material online before they were arrested.
“Our lives have been turned upside down,” Khan told AFP. She said her son, who has not been named for security reasons, was tricked into sharing blasphemous material on the messaging app.
A local police report suggests that the vigilantes may have been motivated by financial gain.
One such group was responsible for the conviction of 27 people in the last three years, who have been sentenced to life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Blasphemy is an inflammatory charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even baseless accusations can provoke public outrage and lead to lynching.
Although they date back to the colonial period, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws were extended in the 1980s when dictator Zia ul-Haq campaigned to “Islamize” the society.
AFP has attended several court hearings in the capital Islamabad, where youths are being prosecuted by private monitoring groups and the FIA for blasphemous online content.
These include Arusa’s son – who had joined a WhatsApp group for job seekers and was contacted by a woman.
His mother said he had sent her a photograph of women with Quran verses printed on their bodies, adding that the contactee “refused to send it and asked Ahmed to send it back so he could understand What was he talking about”.
He was later arrested and prosecuted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
‘Noble cause’
The most active private investigative group is the Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan (LCBP), which told AFP they are prosecuting more than 300 cases.
Sheraz Ahmed Farooqui, one of the leaders of the private investigation group, told AFP that more than a dozen volunteers monitor online blasphemy, saying he believes “God has chosen them for this noble cause”.
“We are not beheading anyone; we are following the legal path,” Faruqui told AFP outside the courtroom. The court heard 15 blasphemy cases filed by his group.
He said most of the accused were addicted to pornography and were insulting respected Islamic figures by using their names and dubbing voices on pornographic material.
He acknowledged that the women were involved in locating and arresting the men, but that they were not members of his group.
Cases can drag on for years in the courts, although death sentences are often commuted to life imprisonment on appeal to the Supreme Court and Pakistan has never executed anyone for blasphemy.
A special court was formed in September with the presence of the AFP to quickly resolve dozens of pending cases.
‘Imposed Agenda’
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reported that several monitoring groups were working in a “dedicated manner” to “witch-hunt” people for online expression or to fabricate evidence of blasphemy by using social media with a “veiled agenda”. Were staying.
“All such groups have been formalized by self-proclaimed defenders of majoritarian Islam,” the group said in a report published in 2023.
A 2024 report by police in the country’s most populous Punjab province, which was leaked to the media, said “a suspected gang was luring youths into blasphemy cases”.
“The Blasphemy Business” report was sent to the FIA with recommendations to launch a thorough investigation to determine the source of funding of vigilante groups.
Two FIA officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP they had received the report, but denied that their office was acting on the advice of watchdog groups.
The FIA did not respond to requests for official comment.
“Not a single person arrested was implicated in any way. They committed crimes,” an official involved in prosecuting the cases told AFP outside the court.
“The law is very clear about it, and as long as the law is there we have to enforce it.”
Arafat Mazhar, director of the Alliance Against Blasphemy Politics, an advocacy group against the misuse of blasphemy laws, told AFP the worrying rise in cases was not because people “suddenly have become more blasphemous”.
He said the increase in use of messaging apps and social media and the ease of sharing and forwarding content was a key factor.
Sacrifice
The accused struggle to find defense lawyers willing to represent them and the slightest accusation can turn an entire family into pariahs.
Nafisa Ahmed, whose brother is accused of sharing blasphemous images on WhatsApp and whose names have also been changed, said her family had been abandoned by close relatives.
“The families of the accused are paying a heavy price. First of all, our safety or lives are in danger,” he told AFP.
He said some families have sold homes and gold worth thousands of dollars given to brides at their weddings to fight the lawsuits.
Dozens of families who formed the support group have protested in the capital and demanded an independent commission to investigate the vigilante groups and their role in prosecuting Pakistanis for blasphemy.
Nafisa said, “In this society, if someone commits murder, he can get away with it because there are thousands of ways to get out of it, but if someone is accused of blasphemy, he cannot get away with it.”
“When it comes to blasphemy, the public has its own court and even family members will disown you.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
