Pakistan: Law enforcement agencies tighten noose on blasphemers

Lahore [Pakistan], December 6 : Law enforcement agencies in Pakistan are tightening the noose on blasphemers on social media and arresting people allegedly involved in this activity, The Nation, a daily newspaper based in Lahore, Pakistan, reported.
Sixty-two people involved in blasphemy have been detained, The Nation reported.
Out of the arrested blasphemers nine have been given capital punishment by courts and high courts have given two the death penalty. Although none of the people involved in these cases has been let free on bail by any court yet, The Nation reported quoting tentative statistics.
Organisations like Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan, Namoos-e-Risalat Lawyers Forum Pakistan, Legal Thinkers Forum, Tehreek Tehfuz Namoos-e-Risalat Pakistan, World Khatm-e-Nabuwat Council, Anjuman Ashqaan-e-Muhammad, Tehfuz Khatm-e-Nabuwat Forum, Tehfuz Khatm-e-Nabuwat Wukla Forum, Legal and Cyber Experts Forum, Razakaran-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat and Islamabad Bar Association have come in the forefront to counter the rising blasphemy cases on social media. The Nation reported that these organisations have been seeing all the blasphemy cases through and through.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony (MORA) had also reactivated its Web Evaluation Cell to control and counter these blasphemy cases and has released social media handles to register complaints for the cases of blasphemy, The Nation reported quoting a statement given by MORA spokesperson Muhammad Umar Butt.
According to The Nation, the Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan Secretary General Sheraz Ahmad Farooqui informed that utilizing its Cyber Crime Wing's expertise, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had booked an accused allegedly involved in the publication of indecent content against the sacred books Quran and Bible on social media. However, it had also arrested two miscreants allegedly involved in the proliferation of desecration stuff on social media, he said in November this year.
Farooqui told The Nation that another accused had been given the death penalty twice by the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) in Peshawar. In the case, ATC Judge Fazl Sattar Khan had reserved the verdict of the court saying that the accused had shared desecration content on the WhatsApp group against the sanctity and prestige of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, Ummahaat-ul-Momineen and the religion of Islam. Another accused Rabia Peerni had been arrested after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against her. She was accused of desecrating Islamic values and injunctions publicly and making viral videos on social media.
According to The Nation, the National Assembly (NA) had passed a unanimous resolution to withdraw appeals of the government from the Supreme Court to annul the decision of the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the publication of blasphemous content on social media.
This resolution was moved in the NA by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) member Chaudhary Faqir Ahmad had told the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) that the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had challenged the decision in the apex court.