A Chinese citizen working at Dasu hydropower project in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was allegedly arrested for blasphemy amid Ramadan. The employee of China Gezhouba Group, a construction company currently working in Pakistan, commented on the slow pace of work during the holy month of Ramadan.
Chinese employee
The individual, who is an engineer employed by China Gezhouba Group Company, got into a confrontation with local employees about the length of the prayer breaks and the slow pace of business during Ramadan. Numerous enraged Pakistani laborers reportedly arrived at a Chinese labor camp with the apparent intention of assaulting the guy, according to a source involved in the detention. According to the reports, Pakistani police and paramilitary personnel were sent in after the event to secure the security of Chinese workers in the dam. The demonstrators eventually dispersed after receiving an assurance from the authorities that the engineer would be held legally accountable for his statement.
Blasphemy
The man was recognised by police as “Mr. Tian,” the company’s director of heavy transport for the China Gezhouba Group Company building the Dasu hydropower project. According to the police, the suspected blasphemy act incensed the local workforce, sparking violent protests across the Kohistan area, where the project is being built, on Sunday evening. Thousands of the protestors blocked the key highway between Pakistan and China.
In Pakistan, which is predominantly Muslim, blasphemy is a serious offense that carries a death sentence. Blasphemy is a crime that carries a death sentence in several nations, including Pakistan. The accused are frequently murdered by crowds before court processes even begin. Blasphemy allegations, according to rights organizations, are frequently used to frighten religious minorities and settle personal grudges.
In the past, mob lynchings of people accused of blasphemy have occurred in Pakistan as a result of the sensitive topic. After Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who spent eight years on the execution row after being accused of blasphemy, was exonerated in 2019, thousands of Islamist demonstrators shut down the nation.
In Sialkot city in December 2021, a crowd murdered and burnt a Sri Lankan plant manager on fire after accusing him of blasphemy.
Religious Council
However, since his two accusers revealed they had not personally heard Tian allegedly make the obscene words, the council deferred its final judgment on whether to move through with the blasphemy trial against the Chinese worker. Instead, they informed the council that Tian’s Pakistani interpreter, who had not responded to the council’s summons, had subsequently informed them of his remarks.
Council leader Maulana Aziz-ur-Rehman asked locals to follow the law’s path and forbade them from hurting other Chinese workers on the Dasu hydropower project and other nearby infrastructure projects.
However, security for the detained employee steps up to make sure Tian is not harmed while he is being held at the Komila police station or when he appears in court nearby.
