KASUR: Kot Radha Kishan police on Thursday arrested a prayer leader and his student on blasphemy charges.

According to FIR, the complainant, Muhammad Imtiaz, of Marali Ottar village, Kot Radha Kishan, alleged he saw a local youth (17) burning some torn pages of the Holy Quran in a street.

It said that on being admonished by the complainant for his act, the youth insisted that the appropriate way to dispose of damaged pages of the Holy Quran was to burn and then bury these. To decide the matter, the FIR said, the youth called prayer leader of a local mosque, also his teacher, who too backed his student’s stance and allegedly cited a Hadith to support his claim.

When the complainant brought the matter to the knowledge of a so-called faith-healer (peer), he advised him to report it to police.

On receiving the information, the police arrived at the spot and arrested the youth and the prayer leader.

The police have entered a case under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against both the suspects.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2016