ISLAMABAD: A blasphemy accused has rejected the allegations leveled against him by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and sought his release on bail.

The FIA arrested the accused in connection with a blasphemy case last month.

He was the fourth persons the investigation agency arrested since March 2017 after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) took notice of sacrilegious material on the social media.

The accused claimed that he was in no way connected with the blasphemous content and one of his videos, which allegedly included blasphemous content, had been prepared and uploaded on the social media by someone after making changes to it.

The IHC had earlier ordered the registration of cases against alleged blasphemers, constitute a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), place the suspects’ names on the Exit Control List (ECL) and utilise state machinery, if needed, to remove the blasphemous content from social media.

The court had also ordered the authorities concerned to include sections relating to blasphemy and pornography in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes.

The IHC also asked the legislature to amend the existing laws to give equal punishment to those who level false blasphemy accusations.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2017