Pakistani police have arrested 15 Christians and booked 45 other members of the minority community under the controversial blasphemy law for allegedly desecrating Muslim graves in a village in Punjab province, sparking tension in the area.
The case was registered after a local cleric filed a complaint alleging that the Christians had desecrated over 400 Muslim graves to occupy the land in Chak village in Faisalabad, about 150 km from Lahore.
Condemning the police action, a rights group alleged that a “fake” blasphemy case was filed against them on the pressure of the cleric and Muslims as they did not want the land allocated to Christians. “In fact there was not a single grave in the land allocated to the Christians by the local administration for their graveyard,” Human Liberation Commission Pakistan Chairman Aslam Sahotra said.
He demanded that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif look into the matter.
