Pakistan: Living in fear under blasphemy law

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In Pakistan, 17 people are on death row for blasphemy, and dozens more have been extrajudicially murdered.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: AlJazeera
By Asad Hashim | May 17, 201

Lahore, Pakistan - Rashid Rehman, a 53-year-old lawyer, was known throughout the south of Pakistan's Punjab province as a staunch defender of human rights, representing peasants, workers, women and members of religious minorities in cases against their alleged oppressors for over 20 years.

When people had nowhere else to turn, local rights activists say, they came to Rehman.

But that door has now been closed. Late on May 7, Rehman was shot and killed in his Multan office by unidentified assailants.

His crime? Defending Junaid Hafeez, a university lecturer who had been accused of committing blasphemy by hardline student groups in March last year.

"Rashid was the master of so many virtues. He had a huge heart, and he had a great intelligence. He even made people laugh. He was a very good man, but he was also serious and committed to his work. He lived for it all, and died for it," Zaman Khan, an official at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, of which Rehman was the Multan co-ordinator, told Al Jazeera.

Rehman, who had earlier been threatened in open court by the complainants in the case, has become the latest person to be extrajudicially murdered in a case related to Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws, which often rile public sentiment.

Since 1990, at least 60 people have been killed outside the Pakistani justice system in cases relating to blasphemy, according to the Islamabad-based Centre Research and Security Studies (CRSS). The list includes lawyers, alleged blasphemers and even politicians calling for amendments to the law. That last category includes former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and former Federal Minister Shahbaz Bhatti.

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