Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member of National Assembly from Layyah has instigated the local people to observe a protest today (Tuesday) against four teenagers and a man belonging to the Ahmadiyya community arrested on the charges of blasphemy, a rights body said on Monday.

The accused will be brought before a court today. A press release issued on Monday by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) stated that some radical groups had announced a show of strength against Ahmadis to pressurize the court not to grant bail to the five Ahmadis.

The accused were arrested on January 28 on charges of writing blasphemous comments in a mosque toilet. They were shifted to Dera Ghazi Khan Central Jail, where the fundamentalist groups had asked other inmates to ‘fix up’ the Ahmadis, according to the statement. The commission urged the Punjab government to stop the violent campaign.

Source Daily Times

It is with great regret that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat confirms that five members of its community residing in Chak 172/TDA, District Layyah, Pakistan have been arrested and charged under Section 295-C of the Pakistani Penal Code. In a grave blow to any standards of decency, four of the accused are children studying at the English language ‘Superior Academy’ private school. Under the terms of Section 295-C any person found guilty is subject to either the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The four accused children are Muhammad Irfan, Tahir Imran, Tahir Mahmood and Naseeb Ahmad.are between 14 and 16.  Mr Mubashar Ahmad, aged 50, has also been arrested under section 295-C.

All five were taken into custody on 28 January 2009 . After four hours in custody each of the accused was charged under the terms of section 295-C on the completely false grounds that they had written the name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on the walls of a toilet at the Jamia Gulzar-e-Medina Mosque. Continue Reading