US Senator requires launch of Hindu instructor jailed in Pakistan for blasphemy

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: US Senator Marco Antonio Rubio has requested for the discharge of a Hindu instructor Notan Lal who was falsely accused of blasphemy and imprisoned for 25 years in Pakistan’s Sindh. 

“Notal Lal was arrested for committing blasphemy based on false testimony and sentenced to 25 years in a Pakistan prison. We ask for his release. Pakistan is a country of particular concern for religious freedom violations,” Senator Rubio mentioned in a tweet.

Notan Lal has been languishing in a jail in Sukkur in Sindh since 2019. His sentence was introduced final month, wherein he was requested to pay Rs 50,000 as effective and serve a 25-year time period in jail.

Despite discovering no proof in opposition to Lal, he continues to be in jail. According to some media stories in Pakistan, his scholar (Mohammad Ihtisham) took to social media and confessed that he had cooked up the fees levelled in opposition to his instructor and even sought forgiveness.

This arrest additionally led to communal violence, desecration of temples, and burning of retailers owned by Hindus. The violence unfold to cities like Mirpur, Mathelo, and Adilpur.

According to a assume tank primarily based in Pakistan, the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan has reported a complete of 1,415 instances of blasphemy within the nation since partition in 1947. Out of this round 18 ladies and 71 males had been extra-judicially killed over blasphemy.

The think-tank additionally says that the precise instances could be a lot increased as not all instances are reported. More than 70 per cent of such instances had been reported from Punjab. Meanwhile, final month the European Parliament had known as for a decision to overview the Generalised Schemes of Preference Plus (GSP+) standing granted to Pakistan as a result of an alarming stage of enhance in using blasphemy accusations throughout the nation. Besides, they’d taken notice of rising variety of on-line and offline assaults on journalists and civil society organisations.

Pakistan is apprehensive about this because it might imply momentary withdrawal of their standing and advantages that include it. EU’s GSP removes import duties from merchandise coming into the EU market from susceptible growing international locations. This helps growing international locations to alleviate poverty and create jobs primarily based on worldwide values and ideas, together with labour and human rights.

During the sixth spherical of the EU-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue (held in Brussels in December), the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of European Commission Josep Borrell expressed concern over the human rights scenario in Pakistan.

The EU had maintained that Pakistan had did not make significant advances iN defending human rights, notably in relation to the controversial blasphemy legal guidelines.