BATTAGRAM: A local court on Thursday sent a former Frontier Constabulary official to the Central Prison, Haripur, on judicial remand in a blasphemy case.

The police produced him before a magistrate following his arrest on the charge of making anti-Islam remarks during an altercation with employees of the district police officer’s offices.

Battagram DPO Tariq Mehmood told Dawn that the suspect had retired from the FC before joining the proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s security team in the district in 2016-17.

He added that the suspect’s contractual employment ended in 2020.

The DPO said the police announced the recruitment of ex-servicemen in the Karakoram Police Force, so the suspect applied for it and visited his offices many times to seek employment.

He claimed that the suspect visited his offices again on Wednesday but got furious and resorted to blasphemous utterances when the relevant staff members promised to update him on the matter later.

The DPO said the suspect fled but was arrested in his house and booked under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of a senior clerk at his office.

A brother of the suspect insisted that the former FC official wanted reappointment to the KPF and visited the relevant offices in Peshawar several times but the relevant staff members demanded bribe for it.

He said he spoke to the suspect, who claimed that he had heated exchanges with the employees of DPO offices but didn’t commit blasphemy.

The man also claimed that the suspect was held when he visited the police station to record statement in the case.

He demanded fair investigation into the matter.

Deputy commissioner Irfanullah Mehsud said he met religious leaders, who promised to help the administration maintain peace in the district.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2022