PAKISTAN: DOCTOR JAILED ON ‘BLASPHEMY’ CHARGES
Police rescue Christian from angry mob.
ISTANBUL, May 16 (Compass Direct News) – Pakistani police have jailed a Christian doctor after “blasphemy” charges incited a mob attack on his home last week in Punjab province. Officials said Dr. Robin Sardar is being held in Punjab’s Gujranwala Central Jail, and his wife and six children have left their home in the town of Chak Chatta, 200 miles southeast of Islamabad.
“This is the house of a blasphemer,” reads a sign on the gates of Sardar’s now empty home where a crowd of angry villagers gathered on May 5, Union of Catholic Asia News reported.
Carrying sticks and kerosene, the group chanted “The punishment of the blasphemer is death,” family members told Sharing Life Ministries Pakistan. Sardar denied having said anything against Muhammad.
Under article 295-c of Pakistan’s penal code, blasphemy against Islam’s prophet Muhammad merits death. Now in hiding with relatives at an undisclosed location, Sardar’s wife Veenas said she could not return home for fear of new attacks. Neighbors have told her that members of local Islamist groups have threatened to kill Sardar if he is acquitted.