It happened in the town of Gujranwala, where a family dispute became the pretext for broadcasting a video in which a pastor was accused of burning the Koran. The intervention of the authorities and the local community nipped religious tensions in the bud. P. Rashid Asi: “May this objective verification of the accusations serve as a precedent for the entire nation.”
Gujranwala () – In Pakistan, a sad case of personal vendettas, this time between Christians, risks provoking new sectarian clashes under the false pretext of an accusation of blasphemy. But – at least this time – the wise behavior of the police and the ulama guaranteed peace.
It happened on April 12, when a Christian, Paras Saleem, a resident of Chaileki village in Sialkot district, accused his father-in-law, Pastor Asif Masih, of burning the Quran. He created a fake TikTok account on social media and posted a 15-second video in his voice in which he made his blasphemy accusation. In reality, as almost always, it was a story invented out of personal revenge: Paras had quarreled with his wife, to the point that she abandoned him and returned to his father's house. Therefore, the man, along with a friend, planned to implicate Pastor Asif Masih in a false blasphemy case and posted a short video on TikTok that went viral on social media.
After some time, he deleted it and also deleted the fake account from social media. But by then, the publication had already caused a very critical situation in Gujranwala, with angry Muslims and scared Christians. Fortunately, upon Pastor Asif Masih's complaint, the police acted immediately, arrested Paras and took his mobile phone. The man admitted that he had made it all up and posted a short video on social media in which he admits that he only did it to get revenge on his in-laws.
The police called the Ulema Peace Committee, which in turn issued a video message claiming that it was false propaganda, pointing out that Gujranwala is a city of peaceful people, where people of all religions have lived in peace for decades. They added that the author of this act has been arrested and that they will do everything possible to ensure that he is punished according to the law for his misdeed, so that in the future no one dares to implicate anyone in false cases of blasphemy.
Speaking to , Father Khalid Rashid Asi, director of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of the diocese of Faisalabad, stated: “I feel immense pain at the fact that even a Christian has tried to use blasphemy laws out of spite. We have witnessed irreparable losses and paid a high price for false blasphemy cases. On the other hand, I am glad for the immediate action and positive role of the police and the Ulema Committee in this incident: they saved many lives and properties in Gujranwala, and set a precedent for the entire nation to properly investigate after any allegation is leveled against any person.”
