The use of Pakistan’s blasphemy law to persecute Christians and other non-Muslims is ongoing, and should be an international scandal. But no one is particularly concerned. After all, they don’t want to appear “Islamophobic.”

“51 year old Pastor given life imprisonment for alleged blasphemous text message,” by Wilson Chowdhry, British Pakistani Christian Association, May 8, 2017 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A Christian man of 51 years has been sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly sending out blasphemous texts in Pakistan.

Christian NGO’s up and down the country are galled by the decision to prosecute Mr Zafar Bhatti under section 295c of Pakistan’s Penal Code, a decision they say is due to an Islamic bias that has consumed the nation.

Campaigners say there is no solid evidence that allows for the Lahore High Court’s determination on 3rd May 2017. Mr Bhatti who was a Christian pastor until his arrest was accused of sending blasphemous text messages from his phone, yet several reports prove that the SIM was not registered to Mr Bhatti and was registered to a completely different Computerised National Identity card holder (CNIC).

Mr Zafar Bhatti was a co-accused defendant under blasphemy charges with Ghazala Khan whose CNIC card was registered against the phone SIM card. Ghazala who was arrested on 11th November 2012 was shown some leniency as she was a woman and was fairly immediately granted bail for her charges.

In an extremely bizarre trial Justice Khalid Mehmood of the Lahore High Court refused to pass judgement against Ghazala on April 8th 2013, he tried to convince the petitioner Ibrar Ahmed, Secretary for Ahle Sunnat Pakistan to forgive Ghazala, stating that Muhammed forgave many people. Pakistani media groups labelled his compassion as a delay tactic (click here). At the time Ghazala asked for a the court to make a just decision of the crime and to exonerate her. However Ghazala insisted did not want to be forgiven by the petitioner as she felt that escape from her blasphemy charges in this manner would indicate original guilt. She remonstrated that as she was innocent of a crime she should be freed by the court on merit.

Ghazala Khan (39 yrs) passed away in November 2016 after losing a battle with Hepatitis C, thus surviving the ignominy of being sentenced for blasphemy charges.

Due to the security reasons Mr Bhattis case proceedings were conducted on the premises of Central Jail Adiala, Rawalpindi, where Zafar Bhatti has been imprisoned since July 2012. Mr Bhatti has faced several attempts on his life at the prison including an incident of poisoning on March 31st 2103, which left him bleeding from his nose and mouth and left him in critical condition for days.

On 25th September 2014 Mr Bhatti narrowly escaped assassination after a rogue prison officer shot a 71 year old British Muslim Muhammed Asghar in a cell adjacent to Mr Bhatti’s. Mr Asghar was taken to a private hospital and later fully recovered from critical condition in a private hospital despite being shot in the chest. (click here)

Jail guard Muhammad Yousaf wanted to kill all inmates accused of blasphemy against Islam, but was knocked to the ground and captured after other prison guards intervened on hearing the shooting. He was inspired to kill blasphemers after being encouraged by Mumtaz Qadri who was also being held at Adiala Prison for his role in assassinating Muslim Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer, who called for abrogation of the draconian blasphemy laws of Pakistan. Muhammed Yousaf was from the same Barelvi cult as Mumtaz Qadri within the Hanafi School of Islamic Jurisprudence. He was able to enter the prison with a gun concealed in his shoe as only a light frisk was taken on prison staff at the time. Since the attack prison security measures are said to have tightened up. During interrogation Mr Yousaf claimed a divine presence entered his dreams at night telling him he must kill all blasphemers.

Shamim Masih, BPCA reporter said:

“The blasphemy law is continuously misused to settle personal scores but also by Islamic zealots intent on annihilating Christians from Pakistan who now make up 15% of all allegations, a percentage that is increasing.

“When people lay false charges against Christians who are later exonerated no action is taken by the government of Pakistan to intervene on behalf of the victims by prosecuting those who laid false allegations. This impunity has exacerbated the situation.”…