The Chak Jhumra police on Tuesday made 30 arrests, including the Pesh Imam of the mosque in village Barnala involved in the stoning to death of Zahid Shah, accused of blasphemy. More than 150 policemen, including commandos of Elite Force, participated in an overnight operation on Monday. During the action, the police faced no resistance, but, after the arrests, more than a hundred villagers surrounded the Chak Jhumra police station and chanted slogans against the police. The area leaders of Tehrik-i-Khatam-i-Nabuwat led the protesters. They dispersed after assurance from the station house officer (SHO) that the arrested people would not be mistreat, and the innocent would be released after interrogation.
That sheds a little bit of light on the incident. The Tehrik-i-Khatam-i-Nabuwat is a movement that specializes in oppressing members of the Qadiani heresy, which is outlawed in Pakistan. The disagreement makes about as much sense to Westerners as the Homoousian Controversy, but to the locals it represents ample grounds for forming mobs and killing people. Of couse, most other things do, too. I'd guess that the late Zahid Shah was accused of being an Ahmadi. |