Pakistani ‘vigilantes’ behind rise in online blasphemy cases

Aroosa Khan’s son was chatting on WhatsApp when he suddenly became the target of “vigilante” investigators who accused him of committing online blasphemy, a crime punishable by death in Pakistan.

The 27-year-old is one of hundreds of young men on trial in Pakistani courts accused of making blasphemous statements online or in WhatsApp groups, a crime for which arrests have skyrocketed in recent years.

Many of the cases are brought to court by private “vigilante groups” led by lawyers and supported by volunteers who scour the Internet for offenders, rights groups and police say.

The families of young Pakistanis, including doctors, engineers, lawyers and accountants, say their relatives were tricked by strangers into sharing blasphemous content online before they were arrested.

“Our lives have been turned upside down,” Khan told AFP, saying her son, who has not been named for security reasons, had been tricked into sharing blasphemous content on the messaging app.

One local police report suggests the vigilantes may be motivated by financial gain.

One such group was responsible for the conviction of 27 people sentenced to life imprisonment or death in the past three years.

Blasphemy is an inflammatory accusation in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unsubstantiated accusations can spark public outrage and lead to lynchings.

Although they date back to colonial times, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws were tightened in the 1980s as dictator Zia ul-Haq campaigned to “Islamize” society.

AFP has attended multiple court hearings in the capital Islamabad where young men are being prosecuted by private vigilante groups and the FIA ​​over blasphemous online content.

Among them is Aroosa’s son, who had joined a WhatsApp group for job seekers and was approached by a woman.

She sent him an image of women with Quranic verses printed on their bodies, his mother said, adding that the contact then “denied sending it and asked Ahmed to send it back to her to understand what he was talking about “.

He was later arrested and prosecuted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

‘Noble cause’

The most active private investigative group is the Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan (LCBP), which told AFP it is prosecuting more than 300 cases.

Sheraz Ahmad Farooqi, one of the leaders of the private investigation group, told AFP that more than a dozen volunteers are tracking blasphemy online, believing that “God has chosen them for this noble cause.”

“We don’t behead anyone; we are following a legal course,” Farooqi told AFP outside a courtroom hearing 15 blasphemy cases, all filed by his group.

He said most of the suspects were addicted to pornography and disrespected respected Islamic figures by using their names and dubbing voices attributed to them in pornographic content.

He acknowledged that women were involved in tracking down and arresting the men, but they were not part of his group.

Cases can drag on for years through the courts, although the death penalty is often commuted to life in prison on appeal to the Supreme Court, and Pakistan has never executed anyone for blasphemy.

In September, a special court, attended by AFP, was established to expedite dozens of pending cases.

‘Established agenda’

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reported that several vigilante groups were working in a “dedicated manner” to “witch hunt” people for online speech or fabricate evidence of blasphemy using social media with “established agendas”.

“All such groups have been formalized by self-proclaimed defenders of majority Islam,” the group said in a report published in 2023.

A 2024 report by police in Punjab province, the country’s most populous province, that was leaked to the media said that “a suspected gang is locking up youths in blasphemy cases.”

The report ‘The Blasphemy Business’ was sent to the FIA ​​with recommendations to launch a thorough investigation to determine the source of the vigilante groups’ funding.

Two FIA officials told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that they had received the report but denied that their office acted on tips from vigilante groups.

The FIA ​​did not respond to requests for official comment.

An official involved in the prosecution of the cases told AFP outside court: “Not a single person arrested was trapped in any way. They committed the crime.”

“The law is very clear about it, and we must enforce it as long as the law is in place.”

Arafat Mazhar, the director of Alliance Against Blasphemy Politics, a group that advocates against the abuse of blasphemy laws, told AFP that the alarming rise in cases was not due to people “suddenly becoming blasphemous”.

He said the increase in the use of messaging apps and social media and the ease of sharing and forwarding content was a major factor.

Avoided

Suspects struggle to find lawyers willing to represent them, and the slightest accusation can turn an entire family into pariahs.

Nafeesa Ahmed, whose brother is accused of sharing blasphemous images on WhatsApp and whose names have also been changed, said her family was shunned by close relatives.

“There are enormous costs to the families of suspects. First of all, our safety and lives are at risk,” she told AFP.

She said some families have sold thousands of dollars worth of homes and gold given to brides at their weddings to combat the cases.

Dozens of families who have formed a support group have protested in the capital, calling for an independent commission to investigate the vigilante groups and their role in prosecuting Pakistanis for blasphemy.

“In this society, if someone commits murder, he can survive because there are thousands of ways to get out of it, but if someone is accused of blasphemy, he cannot,” Nafeesa said.

“When it comes to blasphemy, the public has its own court and even family members will abandon you.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)