Lahore,Sixty-eight
Pakistani lawyers have been charged with blasphemy for shouting slogans against
a police officer named after a companion of Prophet Muhammad.
The
Kotwali police have registered an FIR under blasphemy law against 68 lawyers,
including 60 unknown members of the District Bar Association in Jhang, some 160
kilometres from Lahore, on the complaint of a citizen.
The
FIR was filed after lawyers of the district bar association held a protest
against Kotwali Station House Officer Umar Daraz for detaining one of their
colleagues. Later, a man filed
a complaint against lawyers, saying they had shouted slogans against Umar Daraz
and the mention of the name "Umar", the second Caliph of Islam, had
hurt his religious sentiments.
If
found guilty, the lawyers could face three years in prison. Umar Ibn al-Khattab, a close
companion of the Prophet Muhammad, was the second Muslim caliph and is revered
by Sunni Muslims. "It
is an extra-ordinary FIR in which the lawyers who were protesting against the
police highhandedness were booked under the blasphemy law," an advocate
said.
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