LAST week an unusual press conference took place at the National Press Club in Islamabad. Held by the parents and relatives of youth who are languishing in jail on charges of having posted and/ or shared blasphemous content online, the speakers called for the federal government to constitute an inquiry commission to probe into the activities of the ‘blasphemy business group,’ that they claim had entrapped their loved ones in false cases.

The existence of such a group isn’t a figment of their imagination or an attempt to shield their loved ones from consequences; the term originates from a report prepared by the special branch of the Punjab Police.

In it, the special branch accuses this group of “trapping” young people in blasphemy cases in an “organised manner”. This gang is, as per the special branch, the complainant in about 90 per cent of such cases reported to and registered by the FIA and the vast majority of those entrapped are Muslim boys and girls in their 20s or even younger, and who invariably hail from poor or lower-middle class families. Several hundreds of these young people are languishing in jails across Pakistan.

Typically, the process starts by setting up Facebook accounts and WhatsApp groups which purport to be discussion forums for religious affairs. Invitations to join such groups are then sent to the targeted youth, with the invite usually coming from the account of a female gang member.

The Punjab Police has prepared an alarming report.

Up until here it all sounds innocent enough, but what follows is anything but: in one case, related by the father of one of the victims, his son was contacted by a woman who started an online relationship with him before sending him some objectionable content. When he questioned her, she claimed her phone had been hacked and asked him to send her the material she had posted so she would know what he was talking about. Once he did so, his father reports, the FIA showed up to arrest him a few hours later on the charge of disseminating blasphemous content.

Similar stories could be heard from all the 40 or so families who participated in the press conference, almost all of whom point out that the FIA was ready to swing into action against their loved ones in record time, which speaks to the possible complicity of at least some of its officials in this entire case of entrapment.

As for what motivates this group, the report points to extortion and blackmail as possible objectives and recommends that the FIA launch a probe against this gang and conduct forensic examinations of the mobile phones of the complainants.

Disturbingly but perhaps unsurprisingly, the press conference got little attention in our national media (I have seen no reports on TV and only one in print) and even the original special branch report was only covered by the independent media outlet FactFocus. More disturbingly, though unsurprisingly, even though the report was sent to the FIA, the chief secretary Punjab and also the chief minister Punjab’s secretary in January this year, no action at all has been taken.

In just the last few months we have seen no less than four killings in the name of blasphemy. In May, Nazir Masih of Sargodha was accused of blasphemy and badly beaten by a mob. While he was rescued by police, he later succumbed to his injuries. In June, Muhammad Ismail, a tourist in Swat, was accused of desecrating holy verses and lynched by a mob who broke into the police station to get to their target. In September, Abdul Ali was accused of blasphemy in Quet-ta and, after a violent mob tried to storm the police station in which he was being held, he was shifted to a more secure location where he was gunned down by a police officer who was then lauded as a hero by local clerics and activists and leaders of religio-political parties.

Then was the case of Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar of Umerkot who was accused of blasphemy and then killed by police in a staged encounter. Following this, the local DIG and police officers were feted and garlanded by jubilant clerics. But in a marked difference from the Quetta and Swat cases, where the families of the victims forgave the killers, the family of Dr Kunbhar demanded justice and their cries were amplified by the thousands who rallied in Umerkot in a public protest the likes of which we have never before seen in these cases.

Now, of course, the pushback is underway and the very parties who incited his murder are rallying to defend the police and justify their actions. After all, power and the impunity that power affords, is worth preserving even if it comes at such a terrible cost.

The writer is a journalist.

X: @zarrarkhuhro

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2024