LAHORE: The Shahdara police lodged a case against a young suspect under blasphemy law after he allegedly shared hate material on social media.

The FIR was lodged under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in the wake of the day-long agitation by hundreds of people including activists of Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (LYRA) and other religious parties.

Tension mounted in Shahdara on Monday as hundreds of people blocked the main road for traffic shortly after the sacrilegious contents appeared on social media.

The people first gathered in some localities along the railway lines and continued agitation there for some hours saying that the suspect had hurt their religious sentiments.

Senior police officers, who had reached the site along with heavy contingent, tried to disperse them through dialogue.

However, the agitators got more strength when area people made announcements in local mosques inviting a large number of people to join them.

The protesters later marched towards GT Road (Shahdra), burnt tyres and continued protest from [Monday] morning to evening, demanding immediate arrest of the suspect.

The police high-ups called more reserves to maintain law and order situation.

City Division Operations SP Ali Raza told Dawn that the police high command remained busy in talks with leaders of protesters.

He said the dialogue process which was initiated at 9am continued till the protesters dispersed peacefully after evening.

To a question about the hate material, Mr Raza said police experts traced the suspect.

As the family of the suspect confirmed his act declaring it a gross mistake, they helped the police in his arrest, he said adding that a case has been lodged against the suspect.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018