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Pakistani-American Author charged with Blasphemy in Islamabad

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (Worthy News)-- In Islamabad Sunday, a man accused his own uncle of disrespecting the Prophet Muhammad, prompting local authorities to register the case under Pakistan's notorious blasphemy laws as determined by the legal personnel at Police Station I-9.

Shaikh Irfan Arshad registered a complaint at the I-9 Station against author Aftkhar Ahmad, claiming that his uncle wrote comments in several books that could be interpreted as blasphemous in regards to the Prophet Muhammad, according to the Pakistan Christian Post.

The complaint was registered as a First Information Report under Section 295-C of Pakistan's penal code, "use of derogatory remarks ... in respect of the Holy Prophet."

An FIR is a written document prepared by the Paki police whenever they receive information about the commission of a "cognizable" crime, a crime in which police are authorized to start an investigation without a court order and arrest suspects without a warrant.

Local residents and clerics had surrounded the I-9 police station demanding that police lodge an FIR against Ahmad, but initially police refused to register the case without first investigating it.

“We have recorded the complaint and have sent it along with photocopies of the written material to our legal branch for their opinion,” said a senior police officer.

However, by 4 p.m. the protesters dispersed after they were notified that an FIR had indeed been lodged against Aftkhar and that he had been arrested for blasphemy.