Hundreds of members of the Ahmadiyya community protested outside the Chenab Nagar police station against the arrest in a blasphemy case, disrupting traffic movement on Chiniot-Sargodha Road for several hours.
Police had booked five members of the Ahmadiyya community on charges of blasphemy and arrested one of them on Saturday night.
According to the police, the accused had been arrested for publishing and distributing a “modified” version of the Urdu translation of the Holy Quran. After the arrest, hundreds of members of the Ahmadiyya community staged a protest outside the police station in Chenab Nagar.
The alleged desecration of the Holy Quran took place about four years ago but the FIR was registered against the printer, publisher, author, composer, proofreader and some other unidentified facilitators under sections 295-B (desecration of the Holy Quran) 295-C (derogatory remarks against the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and section 9-1 of the Punjab Quran (Printing and Recording) Act 2011 and Section 295.
According to the complainant Muhammad Hassan Muawiyah secretary general of the Tahaffuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwwat Forum, the incident was four years old against which he had also filed a constitutional petition.
The FIR further stated that the Lahore High Court in March 2019 had ordered the concerned departments to take action against such publishers. The accused had distributed the converted Quran at a ceremony held on March 7, 2019, the complaint stated.
The DPO Chiniot Office had sent an e-mail to Chenab Nagar police with a letter from Hasan Muawiyah and secretary of Punjab Quran Board Umar Daraz in which the police were directed to register an FIR in the case and investigate the matter by taking appropriate action against the accused.
On Saturday night, hundreds of people from the Ahmadiyya community protested outside the police station against the FIR and the arrest of their member after learning about the new development in the case.
A spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community said the case was “yet another attempt to implicate members in fabricated cases across the country”. ‘
Chenab Nagar, also known as Rabwah, serves as the headquarters of the Ahmadiyya community.
