FAISALABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court in Faisalabad sentenced two activists of banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) to six years imprisonment along with a Rs0.1 million fine each for possessing and distributing hate material.

The SSP men, namely Amir Sher Mohammad and Ramzan Abdul Salam, were booked in October after a citizen approached police with the complaint that he saw the two convicts distributing hate material while displaying banners, flags and badges of the banned sectarian organisation.

In the First Information Report (FIR) registered against the duo, the complainant states that he himself saw both Amir and Ramzan displaying banners and flags of the banned SSP on their stall and distributing hate material against the Shia sect, during the International Khatm-i-Nabuwat Conference.

Both the SSP activists belong to Chiniot district while the Khatm-i-Nabuwat Conference was held in Chenab Nagar on October 31.

The case was registered under Anti-Terrorism Act.

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Last week, a Lahore ATC had jailed a Shia man for 13 years after he posted what it deemed sectarian hate speech on Facebook.

Saqlain Haider, 32, who ran a small hotel in Chiniot district south of Islamabad, was also fined Rs0.25 million for “posting hateful material”.

On the same day, an ATC sentenced former Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ) Rawalpindi president Mufti Tanveer to six months in prison for hate speech in October.