Pak court docket docket sends Chinese nationwide to 14-day judicial remand on blasphemy prices

By Press Trust of India: An anti-terrorism court docket docket in Pakistan has despatched a Chinese nationwide to jail on a 14-day judicial remand on blasphemy prices throughout the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after he was arrested on Monday, media tales said on Tuesday.

The police arrested the Chinese nationwide acknowledged as Tian on Sunday and on Monday he was shifted to Abbottabad by the use of an Army helicopter due to security concerns as a result of the police feared native people would possibly harm him.

Tian was booked on blasphemy prices and despatched to jail on a 14-day judicial remand by an Abbottabad anti-terrorism court docket docket on Monday, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Under Pakistan’s sturdy blasphemy authorized pointers, the offence carries the lack of life penalty.

In Beijing, a concerned China on Tuesday said it is verifying the info that thought-about one in all its engineers was arrested by police on Sunday amid a mob assault instigated by a gaggle that accused him of blasphemy, an incident which could cast a shadow on all local weather ties between the two nations.

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Considering the shut relations with China, Pakistan has taken extraordinary precautions to protect the Chinese engineer by holding him in a first-rate security jail to avoid mob assaults, in accordance with the media tales.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin instructed a media briefing in Beijing that “the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan is verifying the information”.

“The Chinese government always asks Chinese nationals overseas to abide by laws and regulations of the host countries and respect local customs and traditions,” he said.

“If the incident involves Chinese nationals, our Embassy will provide consular protection and assistance within the purview of its duty,” he instructed reporters in response to a question.

The Chinese citizen, a supervisor on the Dasu Hydropower Project, an important hydropower endeavor in Pakistan, throughout the Upper Kohistan district of the province, allegedly made blasphemous remarks on Friday when the workers had been going to hold out the weekly prayer.

According to native people, the Chinese supervisor complained to workers on the dam that “precious time” was being misplaced due to prayer breaks.

The Dasu Hydropower Project is a major enterprise beneath the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC).

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“We have arrested the foreigner suspect under blasphemy and terrorism charges and airlifted him from here to present him before the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Abbottabad,” District Police Officer (DPO) Upper Kohistan, Mohammad Khalid, was quoted as saying throughout the report.

The suspect was later produced sooner than the ATC amid strict security measures. The DPO said the Chinese nationwide was moved to Islamabad onboard a helicopter on Monday evening, the report said.

The police registered a main knowledge report (FIR) in opposition to Tian on the Dasu police station on Monday, hours after tons of of residents and labourers engaged on the dam endeavor blocked a key freeway and rallied, demanding his arrest.

According to the officer, police swung into movement after getting tales on Sunday night {{that a}} native mob tried to interrupt proper right into a Chinese camp near the endeavor website.

The mob was managed, nonetheless they assembled as soon as extra on Monday and blocked the Karakoram Highway, which hyperlinks Pakistan with China, in a protest that lasted for over six to seven hours, demanding the Chinese nationwide’s arrest.

The blocked freeway was later reopened to website guests, and work resumed on the Dasu Dam after Tian’s arrest.

Tian appeared sooner than a tribal council, or jirga, on Monday, the place his Pakistani interpreter alleged the Chinese nationwide had used “abusive language against Allah and Prophet Mohammed” all through a heated dialog alongside along with his accusers about time taken off to hope whereas on duty all through Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, tales said.

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Tian denied the accusations and said he had been falsely accused.

Meanwhile, in a bid to defuse the state of affairs, a crew of Ulema (Islamic college students) from shut by cities and villages have prepare a committee to have a look at the state of affairs.

The meeting was attended, amongst others, by Upper Kohistan Deputy Commissioner Irfanullah Mehsood and District Police Officer Mohammad Khalid.

The members urged the agitators to not take the regulation into their palms as police and the district administration had been “handling the matter admirably”.

Under stress from the authorities, the jirga issued a proclamation warning native residents to not vent their anger in opposition to Tian, or within the path of any of the quite a lot of hundred completely different Chinese and completely different worldwide nationals working at Dasu.

Blasphemy is a fragile state of affairs in Pakistan. On December 3, 2021, a Sri Lankan nationwide working in a producing unit in Sialkot was lynched by a mob after workers accused him of blasphemy.

The Dasu Hydropower Project website was hit by a suicide bus blast in July 2021, whereby 13 people, along with 9 Chinese nationals, had been killed.

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Nine Chinese nationals and two Frontier Corps troopers had been amongst these killed when the bus carrying Chinese engineers and workers to the positioning of the under-construction Dasu Dam exploded.

China has been periodically expressing concern to Pakistan regarding the safety of tons of of its nationals working in quite a lot of Chinese funded initiatives.

The Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), in a report in January 2022, stated that as many as 89 residents had been killed in 1,415 accusations and circumstances of blasphemy throughout the nation since independence.

The report said that from 1947 to 2021, 18 girls and 71 males had been extra-judicially killed over blasphemy accusations. The allegations had been made in opposition to 107 girls and 1,308 males.

Quite a lot of Chinese nationals have been working in Pakistan on quite a few initiatives being undertaken beneath the CEPC.