Saturday, September 3, 2016

Pakistan: Court clears all accused in church attack case


The judge also noted that the police had committed serious blunders in the investigation, adding no one from the aggrieved community had appeared before the court.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Deccan Chronicle
By ANI | September 3, 2016

Lahore: A court has cleared all the 46 people accused of attacking a church and houses of Christians in a neighbourhood near Lahore's Sanda police station over faulty investigation and prosecution.

Reports suggest that the mob had attacked the Christian neighbourhood after accusing one of the residents of blasphemy.

Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Aaqib Nazir, in his 17-page judgement, wrote that prosecution had failed to prove charges against the accused and ordered the release of Liaqat, one of the accused who had been in police custody, reports the Express Tribune.

Another accused Muhammad Intizar was declared proclaimed offender as he did not turn up before the court.

Twenty-one suspects were declared innocent while the rest were set free by the Court yesterday.

Nearly 800 people had broken the gate of Saint Joseph Church in Dhup Sari and ransacked the building. First Information Report under Sections 295, 295-A, 436, 452, 395, 353, 337-F1, 337-A1 and 148 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act were registered against them on the complaint of a police official on May 24, 2015.

During the incident, DIG (Operations) Haider Ashraf and Millat Park SHO Naveed Akmal were injured.

The judge also noted that the police had committed serious blunders in the investigation, adding no one from the aggrieved community had appeared before the court.

Two Christian witnesses, who appeared before the court, vouched for the accused and denied their involvement in the incident.

Two prosecution witnesses Constable Mumtaz Hussain and Constable Arif Hussain were declared hostile by the prosecution.

Meanwhile, advocate Nadim Anthony, a council member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, criticised the judgment and said it was the outcome of a faulty justice system.

"How a Christian can appear before Court when he has no protection? Christians and Ahmadis are the most vulnerable segments in our society and avoid recording statements against Muslims because they fear backlash," he said.



Read original post here: Pakistan: Court clears all accused in church attack case


This content-post is archived for backup and to keep archived records of any news Islam Ahmadiyya. The views expressed by the author and source of this news archive do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Times of Ahmad. Times of Ahmad is not an organ of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, nor in any way associated with any of the community's official websites.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.

Top read stories during last 7 days

Disclaimer!

THE TIMES OF AHMAD is NOT an organ of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, nor in any way associated with any of the community's official websites. Times of Ahmad is an independently run and privately managed news / contents archival website; and does not claim to speak for or represent the official views of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The Times of Ahmad assumes full responsibility for the contents of its web pages. The views expressed by the authors and sources of the news archives do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Times of Ahmad. All rights associated with any contents archived / stored on this website remain the property of the original owners.