An American Muslim man on trial for blasphemy in northwestern Pakistan was shot dead in a courtroom Wednesday.
The defendant, Tahir Naseem, 47, was shot “several times in front of the judge” during a hearing in his blasphemy trial in the city of Peshawar, Voice of America (VOA) reported.
Peshawar police subsequently arrested a “young” man identified as Khalid Khan for the shooting. Authorities said it was not immediately clear how Khan managed to get into the court with weapons amid tight security. Peshawar Police Chief Mohammad Ali Gandapur told the press later Wednesday that authorities had launched an investigation into the incident.
“Security is usually tight around the court during cases related to blasphemy offenses because it is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan,” VOA noted.
“We are shocked, saddened, and outraged that American citizen Tahir Naseem was killed yesterday inside a Pakistani courtroom,” the U.S. State Department said in an official statement released Thursday.
According to Radio Mashaal, Khan told police that “the prophet Muhammad had ordered him to kill” Naseem because he “belonged to the Ahmadi faith,” a minority sect of Islam which faces widespread discrimination in Pakistan.
The Ahmadis’ four million members “have faced death threats, intimidation, and a sustained hate campaign for decades,” in the conservative Islamic nation, according to the report. “Ahmadis insist they follow Islam. However, Pakistan declared the group non-Muslim in 1974 for regarding their sect’s founder, Ghulam Ahmad, as a prophet. Orthodox Islam holds there can be no prophets after Muhammad,” Radio Mashaal wrote.
Naseem was arrested on blasphemy charges in 2018 after allegedly claiming to be the “last messenger of God,” which is “a violation under Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws,” VOA reported. The U.S. State Department addressed Pakistan’s blasphemy law in its statement on the American’s death:
Mr. Naseem had been lured to Pakistan from his home in Illinois by individuals who then used Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to entrap him. The U.S. Government has been providing consular assistance to Mr. Naseem and his family since his detention in 2018 and has called the attention of senior Pakistani officials to his case to prevent the type of shameful tragedy that eventually occurred.
Pakistan’s blasphemy law “carries an automatic death penalty for anyone convicted of insulting God, Islam, or other religious figures,” Radio Mashaal writes. Although the state has never executed anyone for the charge, “crowds and individuals in Pakistan often take the law into their own hands,” according to the report.
“We urge Pakistan to immediately reform its often abused blasphemy laws and its court system, which allow such abuses [as Naseem’s killing] to occur and to ensure that the suspect is prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.
“Domestic and international human rights groups have long called for reforming Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to prevent their misuse. They maintain blasphemy charges are often fabricated by influential people to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal feuds with rival Muslim groups,” VOA noted. “Dozens of people are known to have been killed for allegedly committing blasphemy in Pakistan. Even mere accusations in certain instances have triggered mob lynchings of suspected blasphemers.”
Radio Mashaal is a member of U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Pakistan service and has faced censure from Pakistan authorities for its coverage, which the government says works “against the interest of Pakistan.” In 2018, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency forced Radio Mashaal to close its office in Islamabad, but the broadcaster continues to report on the region.