Spot Light on Aaj TV brought three cases of fake blasphemy accusations to light on Monday which have led to innocent young men being imprisoned.
Over 400 men young men and women are in jail under false accusations according to a recent report. A Punjab government report has revealed that people in FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing are running a ‘balsphemy business’.
The show featured three women whose male relatives had been sentenced to jail along with the Government spokesperson on legal affairs Barrister Aqeel Malik. The women’s identities were kep secret.
One woman related that her 30-year-old son came to Pakistan in April 2024 and attended a wedding on the second day of his arrival. He then went missing.
He allegedly befriended a woman on Facebook, eventually leading to a conversation on WhatsApp, eventually being added to a religious group where some blasphemous content was shared.
The man exited the group and showed the link to the girl who had added him to the WhatsApp group to complain. However, his action was classified as sharing of the blasphemous material. The man was allegedly electrocuted and held in a torture room.
Another woman related her 19-year-old son’s ordeal which took place in the same way after being added on Facebook and later on WhatsApp. He was also asked to share any objectionable material that he had seen, which were then used as a culpable offence against him. He was then arrested by plainclothes man who forced him to admit the crime or risk his family members being abducted. She said that a ransom of Rs4 million.
A third woman said that her son was lured with the promise of a job, from where he was abducted and beaten. The woman who had lured him apparently said that ‘her work was done’. A ransom of Rs4 million was demanded and the passwords of his phone were coerced out of him. The family was threatened with dire consequences of being implicated in a blasphemy case. He is now in Adiala jail.
All three women said that the female perpetrator involved in honey trapping the men identified herself as ‘Imaan’.
In response Barrister Aqeel Malik said that the matter had been discussed in cabinet meetings and there were certainly cases where allegations seemed duplicated from other cases. However, he added that many people were actually involved in blasphemy due to mental health or other issues.
However, he reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensure that any government employees running a racket that lured and trapped young people will be invesitgated.
