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https://twitter.com/SCMPNews/status/1647815197912973313
Chinese engineer arrested in Pakistan for ‘insulting Allah’ in Ramadan row, provoking angry mob
Police in northern Pakistan have taken a Chinese engineer into custody after an angry mob gathered to attack him for allegedly making blasphemous remarks during a workplace argument.
The unnamed engineer, an employee of China Gezhouba Group Company, was arrested by police on Sunday evening from a worksite camp at the Dasu hydropower project, about 350km north of Islamabad, “to avert a serious situation”, a member of the local citizen-police liaison committee told This Week in Asia, on condition of anonymity.
The source said that the Chinese national was being detained at a police station in the remote Kohistan region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Scores of infuriated Pakistani labourers gathered outside a Chinese work camp on Sunday with the apparent intention of attacking the engineer for “insulting Allah” amid a heated conversation about the slow pace of work during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, said the source, who was involved in the arrest.
As news of the worker’s alleged blasphemy spread to nearby villages in the mountainous Himalayan region, hundreds of men gathered to blockade the Karakoram Highway, the sole overland road connecting Pakistan to China.
The chanting mob had to be restrained by police and paramilitary soldiers assigned to ensure the security of Chinese nationals working on the dam.
Unconfirmed reports said soldiers fired aerial warning shots to prevent a riot. The protesters dispersed after about four hours, once officials had assured community leaders that legal action would be taken against the Chinese engineer.
Local religious leaders are set to hold a tribal council on Monday to decide whether to register a blasphemy complaint with the police – the first step in the prosecution process – said the Dasu-based source with the citizen-police liaison committee.
Security for Chinese nationals working on the World Bank-financed Dasu hydropower project has been tightened since nine were killed, alongside four Pakistani colleagues, in a July 2021 vehicular suicide bombing that targeted their shuttle bus.
Blasphemy is a crime in Pakistan that carries punishments ranging from fines to the death penalty. An accusation alone often leads to deadly mob attacks in the predominantly Muslim South Asian nation.
A Sri Lankan factory manager working in the eastern city of Sialkot was lynched in December 2021 for removing the posters of an extremist anti-blasphemy political party from the factory’s walls.
Officials in Islamabad did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday’s arrest.
Chinese engineer arrested in Pakistan for ‘insulting Allah’ in Ramadan row
A source involved in the arrest said scores of infuriated Pakistani labourers descended on a Chinese camp, apparently intent on attacking the man, following a heated dispute about the slow pace of work during Ramadan.
www.scmp.com
Chinese engineer arrested in Pakistan for ‘insulting Allah’ in Ramadan row
A source involved in the arrest said scores of infuriated Pakistani labourers descended on a Chinese camp, apparently intent on attacking the man, following a heated dispute about the slow pace of work during Ramadan.
www.scmp.com
