Rights groups condemn arrest of professor on blasphemy charges

Pakistani human rights defenders, minority groups and progressive academics have joined hands in their condemnation of the arrest of a university professor who was accused of blasphemy.

Sajid Soomro,  a professor at the Shah Abdul Latif University, was taken into custody after a police raid at his house in southern city of Khairpur on June 10. He was accused by JUI=F leader Rashid Mahmood Soomro of posting blasphemous post on Facebook.

The JUI-F leader also threatened to register a blasphemy case against a woman professor who raised her voice in support of Mr Soomro.

Responding to the arrest on Thursday, Progressive Academics’ Collective, a body representing Pakistani educationists, voiced its concern for the safety of Professor Sajid Soomo and Professor Arfana Mallah.

 “This is just the latest in an ongoing smear campaign against her and other activists for the past several months which is being orchestrated by Soomro and his supporters. Both cases are extremely troubling and are part of a wider campaign to silence critical voices with academia. We stand in solidarity with both professors,” the group said in a statement.

“Both of the cases are part of a wider trend to use the charge of blasphemy as a political weapon to silence a pro-people and critical voices, as was the case when late Mashal Khan and with Junaid Hafeez who is still languishing in prison.”

People’s Commission for Minority Rights (PCMR) and Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), an advocacy group for minority rights, expressed their solidarity with the two professors.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also condemned the misuse of the blasphemy law.

“HRCP expressed its alarm at the wave of vicious attacks saying that Prof Soomro and Dr Mallah have done nothing more than exercise their fundamental right to freedom of expression as citizens and academics.”

“Professor Soomro and Dr Mallah have done nothing more than exercise their fundamental right to freedom of expression – their right as citizens, their duty as academics. Indeed, it has become frighteningly common to hear of charges of sedition and blasphemy being used to intimidate citizens who dare speak up,” the HRCP said.

“Lest we forget, Junaid Hafeez, Mashal Khan and Professor Khalid Hameed were all victims of a skewed, capricious system built to suppress academic freedom among teachers and students alike.”

“HRCP deplores all such attempts to scuttle academic freedom by targeting intellectuals on flimsy grounds. The state must ensure the safety of its citizens and prohibit the misuse of the blasphemy and sedition laws to silence independent voices or settle personal scores,” it added.

Blasphemy is a very sensitive issue in Pakistan where mere allegations can get you killed extra-judicially or lead to alengthy jail term.

In December last year, Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer in Multan’s Bahaddin Zakariya University, was sentenced to death for blasphemy. He had been accused of posting derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad on social media.

In March last year,  Professor Khalid Hameed, the head of the English department at Government Sadiq Egerton College, was stabbed to death by his student for arranging a welcome party for the new class.

Mashal Khan, a journalist student at Bacha Khan University, was lynched to death by a mob of his classmates on the campus in April 2017 over allegations of posting blasphemous content on social media.