A court on Tuesday (July 8) acquitted two Christian youths of a false blasphemy charge rooted in a minor dispute, their lawyer said.
Adil Babar and Simon Nadeem were 18 and 14 years old respectively when they were charged in 2023. Sohail Rafique, Magistrate Section 30 Cantt Courts, Lahore, yesterday exonerated now 20-year-old Babar and 16-year-old Nadeem of the charge registered under Section 295-A of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws, said Supreme Court Advocate Naseeb Anjum.
The two Catholics were arrested on May 18, 2023 and initially charged under Section 295-C relating to disrespect of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, punishable with mandatory death; and Section 298-A, relating to insulting holy personages, including the wives, family members and companions of Muhammad, and the four caliphs of Islam. It is punishably by life imprisonment with a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
“We challenged the inclusion of the two sections in our bail applications in the Lahore sessions court,” Anjum told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The judge admitted that the accusation did not merit invoking of Sections 295-C and 298-A and ordered the police to change the charge to Section 295-A.”
The judge at that time granted bail to Babar, and Nadeem was later released on bail on orders of the Lahore High Court, Anjum said.
Their trial under Section 295-A continued for nearly two years. Section 295-A pertains to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings and is punishable with imprisonment for up to 10 years.
“The court finally admitted our argument that it could not take cognizance of the offense under Section 295-A without the approval of the federal or provincial governments,” Anjum said, citing Section 196 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which restricts prosecution of certain offenses against the state.
The section mandates that no court can take cognizance of these offenses, outlined in the Pakistan Penal Code, unless the prosecution is initiated by a complaint made under the order or authority of the federal or provincial government or a designated officer, he said.
The case against the two Christians was filed by Zahid Sohail after a minor altercation, Anjum said.
“The false accusation of blasphemy against the two boys caused religious tension in their Qurban Lines neighborhood, and their families were forced to relocate to other areas due to security fears,” he said. “There’s a dire need to make procedural reforms in cases involving blasphemy to protect the victims, a majority of whom are declared innocent after years of court proceedings and imprisonment.”
Minor Dispute
Babar and Nadeel were engaged in light-hearted banter outside Babar’s home on May 18, 2023, when Sohail passed by and accused them of committing blasphemy.
Sohail initially alleged that he was walking past the two youths when he overheard them “disrespecting” Muhammad and then laughing over it, according to Babar’s father, Babar Sandhu Masih.
“Sohail started beating Simon, and when Adil tried to save him, Sohail attacked him too,” Masih told Morning Star News in 2023.
Masih, a Catholic who painted cars at a local auto workshop, said neighbors soon gathered, and Sohail repeated his accusations.
“Both boys flatly denied Sohail’s allegation and said they had said nothing that involved a mention of the Muslim prophet,” Masih said. “When local elders of the neighborhood asked Sohail to substantiate his accusation, he failed to satisfy them and left.”
Masih said that Race Course police station officers raided his house later that evening and arrested his son. They also took Nadeem into custody, saying Sohail had registered a case against the two under blasphemy statutes.
“We were shocked to learn the contents of the First Information Report [FIR] in which Sohail alleged that Simon had called a puppy ‘Muhammad Ali,’ and both boys then joked about it,” Masih said.
Muhammad Ali is a common name in Pakistan, the first name attributed to Islam’s prophet and the last to Hazrat Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law and the fourth caliph.
Masih said the allegation was “completely baseless,” as Sohail had made no mention of a puppy when he first raised the issue.
“No one in our street has dogs, and neither was there a puppy in the street when this incident took place,” he said. “Sohail cooked up a false accusation against our children after failing to convince the locals about his earlier allegation.”
Accusations or mere rumors of blasphemy spark rioting and rampage by Muslim mobs that can escalate into killings. A rights watchdog chronicled a record 344 new blasphemy cases in Pakistan in 2024, highlighting increased abuse of the country’s condemned blasphemy laws.
Of the 344 new blasphemy cases, 70 percent of the accused were Muslims, 6 percent were Christians, 9 percent Hindus and 14 percent Ahmadis, according to the Annual Human Rights Observer report issued by Center for Social Justice.
“The blatant weaponization of blasphemy laws continued to enable persecution, religious intolerance and widespread human rights violations,” the report stated.
At least 2,793 persons were formally or informally accused of blasphemy in Pakistan over the past 38 years, 1987 to 2024, according to the report. It stated that at least 104 persons were killed extra-judicially following blasphemy allegations between 1994 and 2024.
Pakistan, whose population is more than 96 percent Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.
