A Hindu veterinary doctor was arrested on Monday on blasphemy charges in Sindh province of Pakistan, Samaa TV reported. The head cleric of a mosque had alleged that the doctor, Ramesh Kumar, used pages of the Quran to wrap medicines.
Police also filed first information reports in connection with mob violence that erupted in the town. Kumar was moved to a safe location as protestors set fire to shops owned by Hindus and burned tyres in the Phuladyon town, PTI reported, quoting the local police station house officer Zahid Hussain Leghari.
Kumar was booked under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 295B (defiling the Quran) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The punishment ranges from three months in jail up to life in prison.
“Those involved in the unrest will be arrested,” Leghari said, according to Samaa TV. “The minorities in the district will be protected.”
Hindus are the biggest minority community in Pakistan and a large number of them reside in the Sindh province and in Karachi, according to PTI. The Pakistan Hindu Council has previously complained of Hindus being targeted under the blasphemy law for personal enmity.
Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman, spent nearly eight years on death row in a blasphemy case before the country’s Supreme Court acquitted her on October 31. She has now moved to Canada.
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