Ban on blasphemy Forced conversions Marriage of underage girls Persecution of minority communities

Pakistan: The Mob Rules Faster Than the Supreme Court

In Punjab, a mob burned the clinic and home of a Christian pharmacist accused of blasphemy over a WhatsApp video, less than a day after his arrest. The Supreme Court, for its part, needed thirteen postponements to free one Christian brother and keep the other on death row. In Sindh, two Hindu sisters aged 13 and 14 waited seven weeks to go home, while on the Afghan border the army fights khawarij it calls Indian-sponsored and Taliban-protected.

By Islamic fascism Published October 20, 2026

Satirical cartoon: on a dusty village road, a snail carrying a courthouse and a pile of case files crawls toward an empty, cobwebbed gallows, while a pack of lit matchsticks on tiny legs races past it toward a small pharmacy already in flames, with a church in the background. — Sixteen years for the Supreme Court, one afternoon for the mob.

A WhatsApp video, a Friday prayer, a fire

On the evening of October 8, in Gharial Kalan, a village of some 5,000 people in Punjab's Sheikhupura district, police arrested a 40-year-old Christian pharmacist and father of three, accused of sharing a blasphemous video on WhatsApp, and moved him to a safe place. The next day, after Friday prayers, a crowd broke into his dispensary, set it on fire, then burned his house. A provincial lawmaker says the mob then headed for the church before police stopped it. Between a dozen and more than 35 Christian families fled, depending on the source. The police spokesman told BBC Urdu that reports of families leaving were "not true".

A student remembers her father bursting in during a meal: take the essentials and leave, before the crowd catches you on the way. In her street, eight homes in ten are Muslim, and a Muslim neighbour offered to take the family in. Police registered two cases. The first, against the pharmacist, includes Section 295-C and its death penalty according to Voicepk, although the Punjab minister for minorities listed only lesser offences to BBC Urdu. The second targets the mob under the Anti-Terrorism Act: five arrests according to the police, more than 15 according to a Christian lawmaker. One officer told UCA News the affair was "being exaggerated" by YouTubers, and said villagers were ready to sign a surety bond guaranteeing that Christians would not be harmed. Mob insurance, Punjab style.

"No allegation can justify mob violence, arson, intimidation, or collective punishment."— Naveed Walter, president of Human Rights Focus Pakistan, October 11

Thirteen postponements, one noose

Justice takes longer. In 2010, a man from Talagang accused two Christian brothers, Qaiser and Amoon Ayub, of running a blog insulting the Prophet; police took ten months to register the case. Both were sentenced to death in 2018, a verdict upheld by the Lahore High Court in 2022. Their Supreme Court appeal was scheduled thirteen times and postponed thirteen times before being heard on July 6. On October 7, a bench led by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi acquitted Amoon, 46, noting that relatives often hold phone lines and leases in each other's names. It upheld the death sentence of Qaiser, 49, in whose name the website's domain was registered. Sixteen years after the complaint, the court has split the difference. Outside, according to Morning Star News, a lawyer whom the families of other accused call the head of a "blasphemy business group" posed in garlands beside the complainant. The brothers' lawyers are seeking a review.

Officials themselves told a Senate committee in July that most of the 333 blasphemy cases registered over five years were fabricated, often to settle personal scores. In Punjab, 56% of those accused of insulting the Prophet were Muslims; yet, a Presbyterian pastor told UCA News, only Christian neighbourhoods get attacked. New cases had fallen to 13 this year by August, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, as cited by UCA News. Vigilance has not slackened: in Rahim Yar Khan, on October 4, a sub-inspector on patrol, watching a video on his phone, booked a fruit seller turned vlogger who, recounting a sectarian argument with a phone shop owner, allegedly disrespected the Prophet's companions. In 2025, the bishops' Justice and Peace Commission counted eight Christians charged with blasphemy and eight acquitted, in a country politicians and clerics like to call "a land of Muslims for Muslims".

Too young to marry, old enough to convert

In Sindh, two Hindu sisters aged 13 and 14 were allegedly abducted on August 29 near their home in Tando Allahyar, converted to Islam and married off to much older men. Police registered the case on October 6, after weeks of pressure from community leaders. Recovered in September, the girls asked three times to go home; the sessions judge sent them to a women's shelter instead. On October 19, the Sindh High Court returned them to their parents. Their lawyer says he represents several other Hindu families in the same situation.

On October 6, at a UN Human Rights Council side event in Geneva, three UN special rapporteurs urged Pakistan to protect girls from abduction, forced conversion and child marriage. Nicolas Levrat warned that new laws will not end impunity; Reem Alsalem pointed to Punjab's 2026 law raising the marriage age to 18, but worried about uneven enforcement and pressure on families to withdraw complaints. They discussed a 13-year-old Christian girl who vanished in July 2025 and later told a court she had willingly converted and married her alleged kidnapper, a man of 30.

"We don't know where they are keeping her."— The girl's mother, in a video shown in Geneva

In July, the European Parliament noted that Christian girls account for nearly a quarter of forced conversions through marriage. Too young to marry under Punjab's new law, a 13-year-old remains, before a judge, old enough to have chosen freely.

Khawarij, made in India, sheltered in Kabul

On the other front, the vocabulary is theological. On October 8 in Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, gunmen killed police station chief Daud Khan and his guard Farhad; local media blamed the "khwarij", the name of 7th-century heretics that the state now gives the Pakistani Taliban. On October 10 in Kurram, the army said it had stopped an infiltration from Afghanistan, killing 12 "khwarij and Afghan Taliban personnel", for the loss of one soldier, Naib Subedar Hidayat Aman, 40. The same statement called them "Indian-sponsored": heretics, Indian agents and Afghan protégés all at once. President Asif Ali Zardari warned Kabul not to mistake Pakistan's restraint for weakness, and fresh clashes broke out on October 17. Kabul denies sheltering the Pakistani Taliban and calls Pakistan's security problems largely internal. According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, September saw 225 attacks, the most in twelve years.

Pakistan has never hanged anyone for blasphemy. The Supreme Court is too slow, and the mob does not wait.

Verses and hadiths related to this article

“Narrated Abdullah Ibn Abbas: A blind man had a slave-mother who used to abuse the Prophet (ﷺ) and disparage him. He forbade her but she did not stop. He rebuked her but she did not give up her habit. One night she began to slander the Prophet (ﷺ) and abuse him. So he took a dagger, placed it on her belly, pressed it, and killed her. [...] When the morning came, the Prophet (ﷺ) was informed about it. He assembled the people and said: I adjure by Allah the man who has done this action and I adjure him by my right to him that he should stand up. Jumping over the necks of the people and trembling the man stood up. He sat before the Prophet (ﷺ) and said: Messenger of Allah! I am her master; she used to abuse you and disparage you. I forbade her, but she did not stop, and I rebuked her, but she did not abandon her habit. I have two sons like pearls from her, and she was my companion. Last night she began to abuse and disparage you. So I took a dagger, put it on her belly and pressed it till I killed her. Thereupon the Prophet (ﷺ) said: Oh be witness, no retaliation is payable for her blood.”

“But if they break their oaths after making a pledge and attack your faith, then fight the champions of disbelief, who never honour their oaths, so perhaps they will desist.”

Narrated Jabir bin `Abdullah: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Who is willing to kill Ka`b bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle?" Thereupon Muhammad bin Maslama got up saying, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Would you like that I kill him?" The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Yes," Muhammad bin Maslama said, "Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Ka`b). "The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "You may say it." Then Muhammad bin Maslama went to Ka`b and said, "That man (i.e. Muhammad demands Sadaqa (i.e. Zakat) from us, and he has troubled us, and I have come to borrow something from you." On that, Ka`b said, "By Allah, you will get tired of him!" Muhammad bin Maslama said, "Now as we have followed him, we do not want to leave him unless and until we see how his end is going to be. Now we want you to lend us a camel load or two of food." (Some difference between narrators about a camel load or two.) Ka`b said, "Yes, (I will lend you), but you should mortgage something to me." Muhammad bin Mas-lama and his companion said, "What do you want?" Ka`b replied, "Mortgage your women to me." They said, "How can we mortgage our women to you and you are the most handsome of the 'Arabs?" Ka`b said, "Then mortgage your sons to me." They said, "How can we mortgage our sons to you? Later they would be abused by the people's saying that so-and-so has been mortgaged for a camel load of food. That would cause us great disgrace, but we will mortgage our arms to you." Muhammad bin Maslama and his companion promised Ka`b that Muhammad would return to him. He came to Ka`b at night along with Ka`b's foster brother, Abu Na'ila. Ka`b invited them to come into his fort, and then he went down to them. His wife asked him, "Where are you going at this time?" Ka`b replied, "None but Muhammad bin Maslama and my (foster) brother Abu Na'ila have come." His wife said, "I hear a voice as if dropping blood is from him, Ka`b said. "They are none but my brother Muhammad bin Maslama and my foster brother Abu Naila. A generous man should respond to a call at night even if invited to be killed." Muhammad bin Maslama went with two men. (Some narrators mention the men as 'Abu bin Jabr. Al Harith bin Aus and `Abbad bin Bishr). So Muhammad bin Maslama went in together with two men, and sail to them, "When Ka`b comes, I will touch his hair and smell it, and when you see that I have got hold of his head, strip him. I will let you smell his head." Ka`b bin Al-Ashraf came down to them wrapped in his clothes, and diffusing perfume. Muhammad bin Maslama said. " have never smelt a better scent than this. Ka`b replied. "I have got the best Arab women who know how to use the high class of perfume." Muhammad bin Maslama requested Ka`b "Will you allow me to smell your head?" Ka`b said, "Yes." Muhammad smelt it and made his companions smell it as well. Then he requested Ka`b again, "Will you let me (smell your head)?" Ka`b said, "Yes." When Muhammad got a strong hold of him, he said (to his companions), "Get at him!" So they killed him and went to the Prophet (ﷺ) and informed him. (Abu Rafi`) was killed after Ka`b bin Al-Ashraf."

“Do not marry polytheistic women until they believe; for a believing slave-woman is better than a free polytheist, even though she may look pleasant to you. And do not marry your women to polytheistic men until they believe, for a believing slave-man is better than a free polytheist, even though he may look pleasant to you. They invite you to the Fire while Allah invites you to Paradise and forgiveness by His grace. He makes His revelations clear to the people so perhaps they will be mindful.”

“As for your women past the age of menstruation, in case you do not know, their waiting period is three months, and those who have not menstruated as well. As for those who are pregnant, their waiting period ends with delivery. And whoever is mindful of Allah, He will make their matters easy for them.”

“Whoever changes his religion, kill him.”

“Indeed, We revealed the Torah, containing guidance and light, by which the prophets, who submitted themselves to Allah, made judgments for Jews. So too did the rabbis and scholars judge according to Allah’s Book, with which they were entrusted and of which they were made keepers. So do not fear the people; fear Me! Nor trade my revelations for a fleeting gain. And those who do not judge by what Allah has revealed are truly the disbelievers.”

Narrated `Ali: [...] I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) saying: "During the last days there will appear some young foolish people who will say the best words but their faith will not go beyond their throats (i.e. they will have no faith) and will go out from (leave) their religion as an arrow goes out of the game. So, where-ever you find them, kill them, for who-ever kills them shall have reward on the Day of Resurrection."