A 26-year-old woman booked in blasphemy case in Chichawatni tehsil on Wednesday night, prompting a tense standoff between locals and police authorities.
According to Kasowal Police Station SHO Zeeshan Dogar, the case was registered under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code following a complaint by a local resident. The complainant, son of the suspect’s female neighbour, alleged that the woman had desecrated the Holy Quran in her courtyard.
Eyewitness accounts cited in the police report state that the woman was seen placing the Holy Quran on her head, tearing its pages, spreading them on the ground, and pouring water over herself and the pages. She allegedly collected the wet pages and threw them into a water tub. Upon witnessing the act, the neighbour alerted her son, who in turn informed other local residents and contacted the police.
The woman, a native of Vehari district, has been residing in the area since her marriage six years ago to a farm worker. The couple has two children: a two-and-a-half-year-old son and a two-month-old daughter. Locals and family sources claim she has been receiving psychiatric treatment for ongoing mental health issues.
News of the incident quickly spread through the village, and members of a religious activist group assembled outside the woman’s house. To prevent escalation, local police, with support from the Elite Force and the office of the Sub-Divisional Police Officer Saleem Marth, intervened promptly.
According to District Police Officer (DPO) Rana Tahir, authorities managed to relocate the woman to a secure location and later brought the situation under control after protesters briefly blocked the National Highway. Negotiations led by senior police officers succeeded in dispersing the crowd by around 11 p.m.
The suspect was produced before a magistrate on Thursday morning and was subsequently sent to Central Prison Sahiwal under judicial custody.
While police have not released further medical details, the incident has once again drawn attention to the complexities surrounding mental health, blasphemy allegations, and mob mobilization in Pakistan.
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1914134/woman-booked-on-blasphemy-charge
No responses yet