LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday indicted actor Saba Qamar and singer Bilal Saeed in a last year’s case of alleged desecration of Wazir Khan mosque.

Both suspects, present in court, pleaded not guilty and decided to contest the trial.

The magistrate, Javeria Munir Bhatti, directed the prosecution to present its witnesses on Oct 14.

The Akbari Gate police registered a case against the duo under section 295 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) following a court’s direction to act on an application of a lawyer as per law and decide whether a cognizable offence was made out. The section deals with the offence of injuring or defiling a place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class.

Advocate Farhat Manzoor Chandio, the complainant, pleaded that the duo trampled upon the sanctity of the mosque by their act which also sparked an outrage among the citizens.

The defence counsel argued that the FIR was baseless and contrary to the facts. He said no dance or music took place at the mosque as alleged in the FIR. He said the petitioners were innocent and falsely implicated in the case for ulterior motives.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2021