{"id":2564,"date":"2024-09-20T05:01:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T05:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/20\/pakistan-police-fatally-shoot-blasphemy-suspect-in-second-such-killing-in-a-week\/"},"modified":"2024-09-20T05:01:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T05:01:55","slug":"pakistan-police-fatally-shoot-blasphemy-suspect-in-second-such-killing-in-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/20\/pakistan-police-fatally-shoot-blasphemy-suspect-in-second-such-killing-in-a-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan police fatally shoot blasphemy suspect in second such killing in a week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karachi, Pakistan \u2014<\/strong> Police in southern Pakistan shot dead a blasphemy suspect during an alleged shootout with armed men, officials said Thursday, the\u00a0second such apparent extra-judicial killing\u00a0in a week, drawing condemnation from human rights groups. <\/p>\n

Police identified the slain man as Shah Nawaz, a doctor in Umerkot district, Sindh province, who had gone into hiding two days ago after being accused of insulting Islam\u2019s prophet Mohammed and sharing blasphemous content on social media. <\/p>\n

Local police chief Niaz Khoso said Nawaz was \u201ckilled just by chance\u201d on Wednesday night when officers signaled two men riding on a motorcycle to stop in Mirpur Khas, a city in Sindh. <\/p>\n

He said instead of stopping, the men opened fire and tried to flee, prompting police to return fire. One of the suspects fled on the motorcycle, while the other was killed, he said. <\/p>\n

Khoso claimed it was only after the shootout that officers learned the slain man was the doctor being sought by them for the alleged blasphemy. <\/p>\n

Videos circulating on social media showed local clerics throwing rose petals at police and praising officers for killing the blasphemy suspect. There was no immediate clarification from the Sindh government about the circumstances in which the suspect was killed. <\/p>\n

The killing of Nawaz drew strong condemnation from the country\u2019s independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, or HRCH, which said it was \u201cgravely concerned by the alleged extrajudicial killing of two people accused of blasphemy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis pattern of violence in cases of blasphemy, in which law enforcement personnel are allegedly involved, is an alarming trend,\u201d it said in a statement. HRCP also asked the government to conduct an independent inquiry to ascertain who was responsible for Nawaz\u2019s death and ensure those responsible for it were punished. <\/p>\n

The killing of Nawaz in Mirpur Khas came a day after Islamists in a nearby city, Umerkot, staged a protest demanding his arrest. The mob also burned Nawaz\u2019s clinic on Wednesday, officials said. <\/p>\n

The latest killing comes a week after an officer opened fire inside a police station in the southwestern city of Quetta, fatally wounding Syed Khan, another\u00a0suspect held on accusations of blasphemy. Khan was arrested Wednesday after officers rescued him from an enraged mob that claimed he had insulted Islam\u2019s prophet. <\/p>\n

But he was killed by a police officer, Mohammad Khurram, who was quickly arrested. <\/p>\n

However, the tribe and the family of the slain man said they pardoned the officer, saying Khan hurt the sentiments of Muslims by insulting the prophet Mohammed. <\/p>\n

Though killings of blasphemy suspects by mobs are common, the extra-judicial killings by police are rare in Pakistan, where accusations of blasphemy \u2014 sometimes even just rumors \u2014 often spark rioting and rampage by mobs that can escalate into killings. <\/p>\n

Under Pakistan\u2019s controversial blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of\u00a0insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death\u00a0\u2014 though authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy. <\/p>\n

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in attacks on blasphemy suspects in recent years. <\/p>\n

In June, a mob broke into a police station in the northwestern town of Madyan, snatched a detainee who was a tourist, and then killed him over\u00a0allegations that he had desecrated Islam\u2019s holy book. <\/p>\n

Last year, a mob in Punjab province\u00a0attacked churches and homes of Christians\u00a0after claiming they saw a local Christian and his friend desecrating pages from a Quran. The\u00a0attack in the district of Jaranwala drew nationwide condemnation, but Christians say the men linked to the violence are yet to be put on trial. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karachi, Pakistan \u2014 Police in southern Pakistan shot dead a blasphemy suspect during an alleged shootout with armed men, officials said Thursday, the\u00a0second such apparent extra-judicial killing\u00a0in a week, drawing condemnation from human rights groups. Police identified the slain man as Shah Nawaz, a doctor in Umerkot district, Sindh province, who had gone into hiding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}