LAHORE: A sessions court has convicted two Ahmadi men in a 2019 case registered by the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) former cybercrime wing on charges of hate speech.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (AD&SJ) Nusrat Ali Siddiqui Malik sentenced ‘S’ of Hafizabad to seven-year rigorous imprisonment under Section 11 (hate speech) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), seven years under Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizen) of the PPC and three years under Section 298-C.
He was also fined Rs100,000, Rs100,000 and Rs50,000, respectively.
‘Z’ of Lahore got three years and a Rs50,000 fine under Section 298-C.
A third accused, ‘M’, has been declared a proclaimed offender.
The FIA had registered the FIR on a complaint by Muhammad Irfan.
It alleged that a WhatsApp group named “Sindh Salamat” was used to share blasphemous material and a “defiled” translation of the Holy Quran.
The judge held that forensic reports showed ‘S’ created the group on Dec 23, 2018 and ran it as an administrator for sharing Ahmadi religious material.
He said the convict shared links and material posing Ahmadi texts as Islamic, and that notebooks, sermon texts and records of donation collection were recovered from him.
By allowing members to share banned books, the judge held, he was responsible for the group’s content, which established the Peca offence.
The judge acquitted both men under Section 295-B, noting that this requires an overt act of defiling, damaging or desecrating the Holy Quran, which no witness described.
The judge observed that the prosecution led no theological evidence to show that the translation itself was defilement, and that the translation was shared by the absconding co-accused.
He said no material defaming the Holy Prophet (PBUH) was found and acquitted both of abetment and common intention.
He noted that ‘Z’ was not named in the FIR and was not a member of the group, and forensic reports of his phone showed no sharing of material.
AD&SJ Malik convicted him under Section 298-C on the strength of chat screenshots recovered from his co-accused’s phones.
The judgement said the sentences will run concurrently.
‘Z’, who was on bail, was taken into custody after the announcement of the judgement.
Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2026
