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Christian Jailed in Pakistan Despite Another’s Blasphemy Confession

Zimran Asim’s family has been forced to leave their home after officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department and police arrested him in Chak No. 37 village, Sargodha District, Punjab Province, on Aug. 27 on allegations that he helped desecrate pages of the Quran and wrote blasphemous content at three locations.

Zimran Asim’s family has been forced to leave their home after officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department and police arrested him in Chak No. 37 village, Sargodha District, Punjab Province, on Aug. 27 on allegations that he helped desecrate pages of the Quran and wrote blasphemous content at three locations.

Zimran Asim told family members that a Christian neighbor, 17-year-old Akash Masih, confessed to police that he was behind one blasphemy incident on July 16 and another within two weeks after Muslim villagers on Aug. 16 burned and looted Christian homes and businesses in response to a blasphemy allegation in Jaranwala. Police reportedly identified Akash from CCTV footage from a bookshop where he had bought a Quranic booklet.

“Zimran got implicated with Akash because one day he had taken the boy on his motorcycle to get a gas cylinder filled from a neighboring village,” Zeeshan Asim said. “When the police circulated Akash’s photo taken from the CCTV footage to trace him, the gas vendor recognized him and informed the police that he had seen the boy with Zimran. This is how my brother landed in police custody.”

He said that when the family could finally meet Zimran in jail; he told them that Akash had immediately confessed to committing the acts deemed blasphemous.

“Akash told police that he was angry at the Muslims for persecuting Christians and burning churches in Jaranwala,” Zeeshan Asim said. “Zimran also told us that though Akash had categorically absolved him of involvement, the police still named him an accessory in the three cases.”

Investigators accused Zimran Asim of acting as a lookout when Akash desecrated Quranic pages and wrote the blasphemous content, Zeeshan Asim said.

Akash and Zimran Asim were booked under Sections 295-A, 295-B, 295-C, and 298-A of the blasphemy statutes for three incidents that took place on July 16, Aug. 20, and Aug. 25, he said. Violations under 295-C, blaspheming Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, carry a mandatory death sentence.

Zimran Asim’s family was forced to leave their village after his arrest, as village Muslims branded him and Akash as blasphemers and “spies,” he said.

“There was a vicious campaign against our family on social media after the Punjab police chief’s press conference in which he claimed that the incidents in Sargodha were carried out at the behest of a foreign country,” Zeeshan Asim said. “Our photographs were downloaded from Facebook and made viral in social media groups and pages, putting the security of the entire family at serious risk. My elderly parents and siblings had no other option but to relocate from the village.”

He added that Muslims had planned to burn their house when the allegations surfaced, but the timely intervention of police and local elders thwarted their intentions.

“Though our house was saved from being burned down, someone broke into our house and stole all our household items,” Zeeshan Asim said. “My father tried to register a theft case, but instead of taking action, the local police’s attitude was very derogatory towards him—they taunted him for being the father of a ‘blasphemer’ and questioned his upbringing of Zimran, despite knowing that my brother was innocent.”

Zeeshan Asim said that his brother had not seen his 3-year-old daughter since he was arrested.

“Zimran misses her very much and longs to see her, but the circumstances are such that even we have to exercise extreme discretion when we go to court hearings or for prison meetings,” he said. “We can only pray and hope that God will rescue Zimran from these false cases and that he will reunite with his family soon.”

Aneeqa Maria of The Voice Society, who is Zimran Asim’s defense attorney, said police have no justification for holding him in custody.

She emphasized the need in Pakistan to ensure fair trials in blasphemy cases, including an objective assessment of evidence and scrutinizing the intent behind alleged blasphemous acts.

Zeeshan Asim said law enforcement personnel arrested his brother on a roadside as he was going to work.

Zeeshan Asim said Akash’s family had been their neighbor for decades.

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