MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani court has sentenced a Christian man to death for sharing hateful content against Muslims on social media after one of the worst mob attacks on Christians in the eastern province of Punjab last year, his lawyer said Monday, adding that he will appeal the verdict.
In August 2023, groups of Muslim men set fire to dozens of homes and churches in the town of Jaranwala after some residents claimed they saw two Christian men tearing pages from Islam’s holy book, the Quran, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting comments on other pages, authorities said. The two men were later arrested.
No casualties were reported at the time, as terrified Christians fled their homes to safer areas. Although police arrested more than 100 suspects after the attacks, it remains unclear whether any were convicted.
Ehsan Shan, though not involved in the desecration, was accused of reposting the desecrated pages of the Quran on his TikTok account, his lawyer Khurram Shahzad told The Associated Press on Monday. He also said he would appeal the death sentence handed down Saturday by a court in the Punjab city of Sahiwal
Amir Farooq, a police officer who arrested Shan, said the man “shared the hateful content at a sensitive time when authorities were already struggling to contain the violence.”
Naveed Kashif, a local priest at a church in Sahiwal, said he was not apologizing for what Shan posted, but he did wonder “why the court gave such an extreme verdict when those involved in the attacks have still not been punished.”
Blasphemy charges are common in Pakistan. Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. Although authorities have yet to impose the death penalty for blasphemy, the accusation alone can spark riots and incite mobs to violence, lynchings, and murder.
Earlier this month, 72-year-old Nazir Masih died after being attacked by an angry mob in May following accusations of blasphemy.
