A 15-year-old Christian boy and his 18-year-old friend, also from the Christian community, have been arrested in Lahore under the blasphemy law on a complaint filed by a police officer.
According to the complaint filed by police constable Zahid Sohail at the Race Course Police Station, 15-year-old Christian boy Simon Nadeem, and his friend 18-year-old Adil Babar allegedly insulted the Holy Prophet (PBUH). He claimed that he heard the boys “committing blasphemy” while playing when he was on his way to a mosque.
18-year-old Adil Babar’s father Babar Masih refuted the police constable’s claims, saying that the police officer had a quarrel with the boys in the afternoon, claiming the boys had insulted him. The neighbourhood elders gathered and stopped the fight, Voicepk reported.
Babar Masih said, however, in the evening the police carried out a raid and arrested the two boys on blasphemy charges, with constable Zahid Sohail as a complainant.
Earlier, an anti-terrorism court transferred the trial of a juvenile arrested on charges of killing an Ahmadi man who was undertrial over blasphemy accusations inside a courtroom, to the Peshawar district and sessions judge.
The transfer was ordered in the light of a recent Peshawar High Court (PHC) judgement, stating that a juvenile accused charged with a terrorism-related offence should be tried by a juvenile court, and not by an anti-terrorism court.
