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Suspect’s relatives say blasphemy case fabricated

Staff Report

MULTAN: Relatives of Niaz Ahmed, who is accused of blasphemy, said on Saturday that Mr Ahmed was falsely accused because he had an enmity with a man named Muhammad Baqir.

Mr Ahmed’s relatives insist he is an orthodox Muslim and could never say derogatory things about the Holy Prophet. They said Mr Baqir falsely implicated Mr Ahmed in the case because he had not replied to his greeting. They said a recent death sentence given to blasphemy convict Bashir Ahmed by a Bahawalnagar additional session judge had encouraged Mr Baqir and his friends to settle a score with Mr Ahmed.

Ghulam Abbas of Nadir Shah Village in a complaint to local clerics had stated that a group of people including Mr Ahmed and himself were sitting at a tea stall when Mr Baqir arrived there and greeted everyone. Everyone present except Mr Ahmed responded. The men criticised Mr Ahmed for not replying to Mr Baqir’s greeting by saying that it was Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) tradition to greet others. Mr Abbas alleged that Mr Ahmed started making provocative remarks against the Prophet.

The people present caught hold of Mr Ahmed and took him to local clerics who proclaimed the remarks blasphemous and handed him to the police. Mr Ahmed was arrested under Section 295-C of the Blasphemy Law on the complaint of the clerics.

Resolution of Kashmir issue key to friendly ties: Maulana Masud Azhar, Chief of Anjuman Khuddam-e-Islam (AKI), formerly known as Jaish Muhammad, said on Friday that exchanging delegations of parliamentarians, journalists and students between Pakistan and India and resuming travel links between the two countries could not establish friendly relations unless the Kashmir issue was resolved.

Addressing a seminar at Bahawalpur, Maulana Azhar said exchanging delegations and resuming the Lahore-Delhi bus service and Samjhota Express train would be useless unless the right to vote as specified under UN resolutions is given to the Kashmiris.

He said that Pakistan should not forget that India had dismembered Pakistan by creating Bangladesh in 1971 and it was now plotting to further dismember Pakistan under the guise of friendship.

Maulana Azhar said his organisation would continue its struggle in Kashmir until the Kashmiris were liberated from Indian rule. He said the celebrations of Pakistan’s Independence Day were unjustified because anti-Islamic forces were massacring Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine and Kashmir.

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