HYDERABAD: Investigation into the blasphemy case against a school principal was transferred to the Hyderabad police on Tuesday, a Karachi-based police source told Dawn.

The investigation was transferred after a board headed by the Sukkur DIG recommended to the Sindh police to transfer the investigation to any district other than Ghotki.

The suspect in the Ghotki blasphemy case was said to be already in Hyderabad police’s “protective custody”, but he has not been produced before any court of law yet.

He had to be shifted to Hyderabad after riots broke out in Ghotki on Sept 15.

A temple was also ransacked by miscreants who blocked a section of the National Highway. After a blasphemy case was lodged against the suspect on the complaint of the father of a student of the said school, Ghotki police also lodged three cases in a row against rioting and ransacking of the school and temple.

The temple ransacking case was also lodged under the blasphemy law although civil rights activist Ali Ahmed Palh at a press conference the other day claimed that the case should have been lodged under Section 295-A, PPC.

Hyderabad range police DIG Naeem Shaikh has confirmed that the investigation was transferred to Hyderabad.

It was also learnt that the DIG has not appointed anyone yet as inquiry officer in the case.

Sukkur region police AIG Dr Jamil Ahmed claimed that the Sukkur region police wanted safe and transparent investigation into the case and protection of the accused and that was why the board was constituted for recommending shifting of the investigation case from Ghotki to some other range.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2019