Pakistan: Peshawar resident receives life sentence for blasphemy, accused of desecrating Quran

Peshawar [Pakistan], September 17 (ANI): In a significant verdict, a court in Peshawar has sentenced a local resident to life imprisonment for the desecration of the Holy Quran in the Khazana area approximately five years ago, Dawn reported.
Additional district and sessions judge, Mohammad Sher Ali Khan, issued the ruling, stating that the prosecution had convincingly proven the charge of Quran burning against the accused "without any shadow of doubt." The judge also extended the benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the convict, which allows the period of detention prior to conviction to be counted toward his prison term.
Following the verdict, the judge ordered the burial of the burnt Quranic pages in the ground once the period for appeal against or revision of the decision had expired, along with the disposal of related pleas.
The case originated with the filing of a First Information Report (FIR) at the Khazana police station on September 17, 2018, under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, which deals with the defiling of copies of the Holy Quran. The complainant in the case, a resident of Garhi Khan Baba village on the outskirts of Peshawar, reported that he and other residents had witnessed black smoke rising from a local mosque.
Upon investigation, they discovered the accused setting fire to copies of the Holy Quran on a carpet. The residents intervened, extinguished the fire, and handed over the accused to the police, along with the burnt Quranic copies, as reported by Dawn.
The accused was indicted for the offense on January 12, 2019, during which he initially pleaded not guilty but later recorded a confessional statement with a magistrate. In his statement, he explained that his actions were a result of a series of events. He had fallen in love with a girl and, after his family's rejection of his marriage proposal on his behalf, he personally approached the girl's family, leading to a physical altercation with her brothers.
Subsequently, his family coerced him into taking an oath on the Holy Quran, promising not to visit the girl's house again and assuring that they would present the marriage proposal. He claimed that this promise was not fulfilled.
The accused recounted that he eventually became addicted to the drug ice (crystal meth) and, feeling desperate, set fire to the Quranic copies in a nearby mosque, believing that such an act would provoke people to take his life.
However, during the trial, the accused retracted his confessional statement. His defense argued that the statement had been extracted through severe torture and pointed out that he was a psychiatric patient. Additionally, they criticized the investigation officer for failing to present the accused before a medical board to assess his mental condition, according to Dawn.
The court dismissed these arguments, asserting that the accused's drug addiction had developed in response to his failed romantic relationship, leading to a cynical outlook on life. It further concluded that the accused had intentionally and consciously committed the act of Quran burning, motivated by his belief that it would lead to his own demise, as he was convinced that Muslims would retaliate violently.
The verdict represents a significant legal outcome in a case involving the desecration of religious texts in Pakistan, Dawn reported.
There has been a sudden rise in cases of false blasphemy accusations against the members of the minority community in Pakistan. In many cases, the people take law into their hands and carry out violent attacks on the houses and places of worship.
According to the DND news agency, over the past three months, an alarming pattern has emerged in Sargodha in Punjab province, with at least five complaints linked to accusations of blasphemy filed against Christians. (ANI)