Vet charged with blasphemy over medicine ‘wrapped in religious text’

An angry crowd set fire to a Hindu veterinary doctor’s clinic near Mirpur Khas, Sindh; other Hindu-owned shops were looted as well. The vet was accused of selling medicine wrapped in paper bearing Islamic religious text. The vet said his use of the paper, apparently torn from an Islamic studies school textbook, was a mistake.

According to reports, the vet had used pages from the school textbook to wrap up medicines for a customer with sick livestock. But the customer saw Islamic religious content on the pages and went to a local cleric who informed police.

Maulana Hafeez-ur-Rehman, a local leader of the religious political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami, claimed that the doctor had done it deliberately.

According to police, the vet has insisted that his use of the paper was a mistake.

He has since been charged with insulting religious beliefs and defiling the Koran and faces life in prison.

Mirpur Khas police officer Javed Iqbal informed that those involved in the attacks would be arrested. He said they had “neither love for Islam nor for their neighbours”.

 

The news was published in BBC Urdu, May 28^th, 2019.