MULTAN, Sept 26 (Alliance News) – The Pakistani government revealed on Thursday that police orchestrated the extrajudicial killing of a doctor accused of blasphemy, contradicting the initial claim that he was killed in a shootout.
The announcement marks the first time the government has formally accused security forces of such actions in a blasphemy-related case.
Dr. Shah Nawaz, from Sindh province, surrendered to police last week in Mirpur Khas, seeking to prove his innocence following accusations of sharing blasphemous content.
A mob in Umerkot had burned his clinic and demanded his arrest after claiming he insulted the Prophet Muhammad.
Sindh’s Interior Minister, Ziaul Hassan, stated that a government probe revealed the doctor was killed in a “fake encounter” staged by police, and there was no armed conflict as earlier reported.
The government has allowed Nawaz’s family to file murder charges against the officers involved.
Tragically, after Nawaz was shot, a mob snatched his body from his father and burned it. This incident supports claims made by Nawaz’s family, who had accused the police of fabricating the story surrounding his death.
Blasphemy accusations in Pakistan frequently spark violence, though police involvement in such killings is rare.
Nawaz’s father, Mohammad Saleh, expressed gratitude for the government’s support and demanded that the officers responsible be punished under Sharia law’s eye-for-an-eye principle. His mother, Rehmat Kunbar, echoed his sentiments, hoping justice for her son would deter future extrajudicial killings.
This marks the second police-led extrajudicial killing of a blasphemy suspect in Pakistan this month. A week earlier, police in Quetta fatally shot Syed Khan, another blasphemy suspect, inside a police station.
