Muslim man gets life term for desecration 16 March, 2012



MUZAFFARABAD: A court on Tuesday jailed a 42-year-old man for life for burning the holy Quran, officials said. Aseem Ahmed, a father of three, was arrested last June on charges of desecrating the holy Quran in Lasda village in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, about 40 kilometres east of the capital, Muzaffarabad. Ahmed said he would appeal the sentence, professing his innocence and saying he had no idea that a copy of the holy Quran was among a pile of books he set alight. "One day I came home and got angry at seeing the books scattered. I collected them up and burnt them," he said. End.