Pakistan: Chinese man arrested on blasphemy charges released on bail

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [Pakistan], April 29 : A Chinese national, who was arrested on charges of blasphemy, has been released on bail by an Abbodttabad anti-terrorism court, according to Pakistan media reports.

A foreign national on the Dasu hydropower project in Kohistan district, who had been detained after a crowd accused him of committing blasphemy earlier this month, was ordered to be released by Judge Sajjad Ahmad Jan, reported The News.

According to the ATC judge's orders, the Chinese worker was released from police custody and transferred to a secret location in exchange for Pakistan Rupee (PKR) 200,000 in local bank surety bonds, Geo News reported.

Atif Ali Jadoon, Mohammad Arif Masud, and the deputy public prosecutor were among the suspect's attorneys present in court. They pleaded for their client's innocence, according to Geo News.

Due to security concerns, the Chinese national was not shown to the judge during the hearing.

The records of the accusers and of the Chinese man were presented by the joint investigation team (JIT) in the court.

Naseerudden, Kamila Station House Office, who was among the main complainants in the case, appeared before the court with relevant records.

As the incident happened on April 15, the judge stated in his order that workers Gulistan, Shafi, Qadir, and translator Yasir registered the first information report (FIR) in the case after two days on April 17.

They narrated the hearsay tale before the JIT but were unable to present witnesses to corroborate their claims or establish charges in their individual statements.

The translator (Yasir), who was 35-40 feet away from the Chinese man who was in charge of heavy transports at the Dasu Dam Project at the time of the incident, according to the judge's order, assumed that the latter was the one who made the sacrilegious statements, according to Geo News.

The judge said in the order, "Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code [PPC] says whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation or by any imputation or innuendo or insinuation directly or indirectly defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to be fined that in light of the available record."

He added, "The case of accused petitioner not comes within the ambit of the reasonable ground; that the accused petitioner is a foreigner and came here for his services at the Dasu Dam Project in Kohistan that a procession by the people of locality (Upper Kohistan) was the result of misunderstanding as a result of which whereof the local police station in Kohistan concocted this false case against Chinese national while according to available record, no such offence was committed by the accused and hence granted the bail."

The FIR in the incident was filed at the Kamila Police Station in Upper Kohistan in accordance with Sections 295-C of the Pakist Penal Code and Sections 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The release of the Chinese national was a judicial matter and they accepted it wholeheartedly, but Maulana Waliullah Tohidi, a member of the Ulema Jirga established by the local clerics after the incident to oversee the Chinese national blasphemy case, said the translator Yasir who made false accusations against the latter should be brought to justice under the appropriate sections of the law as he incited local Kohists to take to the streets.

He said, "We (Kohists) are patriotic Pakist and would never allow anybody within the country or outside to sabotage the Dasu Hydropower Project at any cost," as reported by Geo News.