PAKISTAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR BLASPHEMY AS CASES SURGE

A court in Pakistan’s Lahore has sentenced a man to death for blasphemy, police said on February 27, 2025, as the country has seen a sharp rise in such prosecutions, with hundreds of cases being registered in recent years.
Under Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or its religious figures can face the death penalty. However, while hundreds have been prosecuted, no one has been executed so far.
The rise in blasphemy cases has particularly impacted Christians and other religious minorities, with Muslim vigilantes reportedly colluding with federal investigators to target them, said the report of National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), released in October last year.
Pakistan saw three times as many blasphemy cases in the first seven months of 2024 compared to all of 2023, according to the NCHR investigation.