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Cleric held for inciting boy to chop off his hand

Imran Gabol Published January 17, 2016

LAHORE: Police arrested a cleric on Friday on a charge of inciting a 15-year-old boy to chop off his hand for alleged blasphemy.

Anwar, 15, of Deepalpur, Okara district, attended a Milad gathering at a mosque in Hujra Shah Muqeem area on Jan 11 where the prayer leader, Shabbir Ahmed, confronted the gathering with a poser: “Tell me who has stopped praying and does not believe in the Holy Prophet (PBUH).”

The boy raised his hand by mistake. The prayer leader and the crowd accused him of committing blasphemy there and then.

The guilt-ridden boy slipped away from the gathering, went home and chopped off the hand which he had raised by mistake. He then placed the chopped hand in a plate and presented it to the cleric.

The family of the boy celebrated the act and refused to take any action against the Shabbir Ahmed, the prayer leader.

But police registered a case under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on Saturday against the cleric on behalf of the state.

Station House Officer Nousher said Shabbir Ahmed had been booked and arrested for declaring the boy infidel and inciting him to cut off his hand.

Farasat Gilani, an eyewitness, told Dawn that the boy had raised his hand without grasping the question.

“As soon as he raised his hand, the cleric termed him a blasphemer. The boy felt guilty and went to his house and cut off his hand to prove his faith,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2016

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Imran Gabol is a Lahore-based reporter for Dawn with over a decade of experience in journalism. He covers politics, climate change, human rights, education, and metropolitan affairs. He can be found on X at @gabolizm.

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Dr Abdullah

Jan 17, 2016 09:30am

like always, absolutely contrary to facts, the incident has been reported in local papers saying that eyewitnesses confirmed that cleric didnt provoke the crowd, he probably had not even noticed what happened. But how could the champions of human rights stay behind, we often charge the religious fundamentalists of being extremists but look at it here the so called liberals are also touching the extreme, creating a whole new episode. The Kasur incident was also reported with such enthusiasm, and will to bring extremism to end, without realizing that two wrongs will not make one right. The JIT in Kasur found out that there were no evidence of child abuse, no one had any videos including journalists who claimed to have 400 videos and the main perpetrator the social activist was found involved in child porn. But there is no shame to express with those who sounded like emergency and catastrophe in Kasur as all hell had broken down, for them it was just another breaking news.

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Arabian Sea

Jan 17, 2016 03:02pm

This is mind bogglingly brutal. The prayer leader should be sent to a mental asylum. And this is the time CII and other ulemas need to come out in full force to denounce not only the prayer leader but the parents and residents of the locality for their part in this gory incident.

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