17-year-old Akash Karamat has spent one year in jail for an accusation that, the Lahore High Court said, is not supported by evidence.
by Massimo Introvigne
Last week, the Lahore High Court in Pakistan granted post-arrest bail to a young Christian boy, Akash Karamat, who was accused of blasphemy. The 17-year-old has not been liberated from jail, however, as he is still under investigation in two other cases.
As “Pak Christian News” and social media sources reported, a FIR (First Information Report) was registered against Akash under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws at Satellite Town Police Station in Sargodha, alleging that Akash made derogatory remarks about Islamic figures. He was reported by one Muhammed Abdul Ghafar, who said he found blasphemous writings on a paper pasted on his house wall on July 16, 2023. Akash was named only six weeks later, after a supplementary statement by Ghaffar on September 1, 2023. Akash has remained in jail for more than one year.
Akash’s lawyer, Asad Jamal, argued that his client, under 17 at arrest, should have received bail earlier under the Juvenile Justice System Act of 2018. Despite a court order confirming Akash’s juvenile status in July 2024, the trial court initially denied his bail petition.
Now Justice Waheed Khan of the Lahore Hogh Court granted post-arrest bail in the pasted paper case to Akash due to insufficient evidence. Justice Khan noted, “No source implicates the petitioner in the supplementary statement. There is no record of any witness observing the alleged incident.”
The court noted that although adhesive tape was recovered from Akash, it did not definitively link him to the crime. Additionally, handwriting samples analyzed by the Punjab Forensic Science Agency yielded inconclusive results, with the agency indicating that no definitive conclusions could be drawn from the evidence, as “Pak Christian News” reported.
The court noted the trial’s lack of progress, deeming it unreasonable to detain Akash indefinitely for the specific allegation of blasphemy. Justice Khan stated, “The petitioner has been in custody since his arrest. Despite completing the investigation and submitting the report, the trial has made no considerable progress.”
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
