An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday sentenced a man to death for sharing blasphemous content about Islam on social media, a government prosecutor said.

ATC Judge Shabir Ahmed announced the sentence for the 30-year-old accused in Bahawalpur.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had arrested the accused, who belongs to the Shia community, last year from Bahawalpur and a case was registered against him at CTD Multan police station.

The accused, who hails from Lahore, had allegedly posted derogatory content about prominent Sunni religious figures and wives of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on Facebook.

The sentence is the harshest among cyber-crime related sentences handed down so far in the country.

Blasphemy has been a contentious issue in the country where people have been murdered over allegations of blasphemy. Earlier this year, a mob in Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan beat up a student, Mashal Khan, to death after accusing him of blasphemy over social media.

The incident caused an outrage across the country, with calls for the blasphemy law to be amended. The investigation into Mashal’s murder was concluded after a joint investigation team probing the case cleared him of all blasphemy charges.

Pakistan is cracking down against blasphemy related crimes on social media with the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar threatening to block all social media websites with ‘blasphemous content’ earlier this year.

Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 09:48 - GMT 06:48