KARACHI – A teenager faces at least two more weeks in custody for alleged blasphemy after prosecutors demanded that police re-investigate the case at a more senior level, officials said on Friday. In a case condemned by rights activists, Samiullah was arrested on January 29 after writing an allegedly blasphemous comment in a school exam, the latest incident highlighting the blasphemy laws that liberals want to reform.
Although the privately educated 17-year-old Muslim apologised to the exam board in Karachi, the apology was not accepted and the matter reported to police. But when police finally filed their report, prosecutors sent it back on the grounds that it was submitted in the wrong administrative district and conducted by an unqualified police officer.
“In the first place, this case does not fall in our limits. The offence was committed in the eastern zone’s examination hall,” an official at the district attorney’s office in central Karachi, where the report was filed, told AFP. “Besides that, the case has to be investigated by a more senior police official than the one in this case.” A police official said the report would be re-submitted in 14 days.
“The report will formally be submitted before a Sessions Court judge as a charge-sheet. The boy will remain in judicial custody until then,” he said. “Many police officials are not educated in understanding legal procedures and such problems emerge from time to time,” the police official added. Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Pakistan to drop the charges immediately and ensure the teen’s safe release from detention.
