US Senator calls for release of Hindu teacher jailed in Pakistan's Sindh over false blasphemy accusations

US Senator Marco Antonio Rubio has called for the release of a Hindu teacher Notan Lal who was falsely accused of blasphemy and imprisoned for 25 years in Pakistan's Sindh province.

"Notan Lal was arrested for committing "blasphemy" based on false testimony and sentenced to 25 yrs in a Pakistan prison. Sen Rubio calls for Lal's release and an end to the persecution in Pakistan, a country of particular concern for religious freedom violations #ExpressionNOToppression," Rubio tweeted.

Currently, Notan Lal is in a prison in Sukkur in Sindh. He has a wife and four children.

"Notan Lal is detained for blasphemy-related offenses," the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a statement.

On September 15, 2019, Lal, the owner and principal of a private school in Ghotki, was detained after a student accused him of insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an Urdu lesson. Lal was charged with "insulting the Prophet Muhammad" (Sec. 295-C), according to the USCIRF statement.

The accusation against Lal prompted protests and riots in Ghotki, where a Hindu temple was vandalized and Lal's school was damaged.

On February 7, 2022, Lal was sentenced to life in prison and fined 50,000 rupees, the statement added.

In a recent study on the blasphemy issue in Pakistan, a local Think Tank, Centre for Research and Security Studies had revealed that from 1947 to 2021, as many as 89 people were extra-judicially killed over blasphemy accusations in the country.

It further stated that a total of 1,287 citizens were accused of committing blasphemy from 2011-21, the period in which Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) remained most active and expanded its support base across the country, reported European Times.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's government's failure to control incidents of blasphemy and an apparent soft- corner for the extremist Islamist groups, for political purposes, will have far-wider consequences for Pakistan in the coming months.

In addition, the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan has emboldened the hard-line Islamist forces in Pakistan. All these factors are indicating that there will be more incidents of blasphemy killings.

( With inputs from ANI )