In Sindh, police killing of Muslim doctor accused of ‘blasphemy’ casts pall over Diwali festivities

The brutal killing in mid-September by the Pakistani police of Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar, a physician accused of “blasphemy” in Umerkot in Sindh, cast a pall of fear in this Hindu-majority district on the border with India ahead of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

Preparations for Diwali in this historic area known for its interfaith harmony typically begin a month ahead of the festival, which symbolises the victory of good over evil. Hundreds of shops sell fireworks, sweets, festive clothing and other items.

Although cases have been registered for the murder and many suspects taken into custody, only two fireworks shops opened here this year – with no customers. The shopkeepers refused to comment. It is a “sensitive” issue.

Hindus form just over half the district’s 1.15 million population, according to the 2023 census. But if a respected Muslim physician, one of the top ten in his class at medical college, someone who ran free health clinics for the poor, could be accused of “blasphemy” and killed by police, it makes members of the minority community feel even more vulnerable.

For Hindus, such accusations are “like a sword dangling on their heads, and many felt that they could be ‘next’”, wrote development expert Masood Lohar in Dawn.

The case of Kunbhar, 48, is horrific even by Pakistan’s standards. A local mosque leader filed charges against him on September 17 under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries a mandatory sentence of capital punishment for anyone found guilty of having disrespected the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him). The cleric claimed that Kunbhar had posted such material on his Facebook page.

While the Pakistani state has never executed anyone convicted under 295-C, vigilante violence has claimed about some 100 lives since 1991, when the option of life imprisonment lapsed from 295-C.

Violence triggered by perceived “disrespect” (gustakhi in Urdu) of Islamic symbols has been escalating in Pakistan since military dictator Zia-ul Haq added sections to the initial Section 295 enacted by the British colonists in 1870. The original law was meant to deter people from “injuring” “religious sentiments” but was amended in 1927 to add the word “intent”.

Since the 1980s when the laws were amended to add more offences, there has been a sharp rise in the number of “blasphemy” accusations in the country.

Between 1948 and 1986, there were just 14 complaints of “blasphemy” across the country. After the law was amended, 44 cases were registered between 1987 and 1999. The year 2000 saw 52.

The Lahore-based Centre for Social Justice, which tracks “blasphemy”-related arrests, prosecutions, and killings, reports that at least 600 people accused of “blasphemy” are in prisons across Pakistan – Muslims: 52%, Ahmadis: 32%, Christians: 12%, Hindus: 2%, unconfirmed identity: 2%.

Around 1,500 such accusations and cases were registered in the country as of 2021, according to data published by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, cited by Lohar. Of these, 1,098 cases – more than 70% – were in Punjab. The total number of cases reported in Sindh was 173.

Like Kunbhar, many of the accused never get a trial or due process.

The most prominent victim of these accusations was Salmaan Taseer, governor of Pakistan’s largest and most powerful province Punjab. He was shot dead by his bodyguard in 2010. In a rare display of legal accountability, the bodyguard was found guilty and executed for the murder – but extremists have turned the killer’s grave into a shrine.

In April 2017, a mob at the Wali Khan University in Mardan, the second-largest city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, lynched and killed journalism student Mashal Khan after rumours of his alleged “blasphemy” surfaced.

In December 2021, a Sri Lankan factory manager in Sialkot, Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, 48, was lynched and his body burnt on accusations of “blasphemy”.

Desecrating pages of the holy Quran also triggers mob violence. The offence does not carry capital punishment either in law or in religious tradition. But there have been countless cases of mob violence targeting individuals and even entire communities for this “crime”.

Such cases are routine in provinces like Punjab. But this extrajudicial killing by police and a mob burning a body are “dangerous precedents never before witnessed in the history of mystic Sindh”, development expert Masood Lohar told Sapan News.

When clerics brought Umerkot to a standstill in September with their protests against Kunbhar, he fled to Karachi from where he recorded a video, claiming his Facebook account had been hacked. The video, shared on Facebook, did not protect him.

He was arrested and taken to a police lockup in Mirpurkhas district bordering Umerkot. That night, he died in what police claimed was an “encounter”.

This was the second killing of a “blasphemy” accused within a week. On September 12, a policeman opened fire inside a police station in Balochistan province, killing a 52-year-old man who was held there after “blasphemy” accusations.

As Kunbhar’s father, a retired schoolteacher, tried to conduct his son’s funeral in their native village of Janhero near Umerkot, a mob of about 35 people snatched the body and set it ablaze.

Kunbhar’s driver Prem Kohli, a Hindu, tried to protect the body. His act of courage and his retrieving of the body after the mob left has given him the status of a hero in the eyes of many.

In a victory for the rights activists, a government-appointed Joint Investigation Team found the police guilty of custodial killing. A second autopsy confirmed torture, with Kunbhar’s ribs being broken before his death.

October 28 saw another win when the Sindh High Court dismissed the applications of a cleric and a policeman, Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan leader Pir Umar Jan Sarhandi and former Crime Investigation Agency in-charge Inayat Zardari who sought the quashing of the first information report against them for Kunbhar’s murder.

In addition, the Sindh High Court transferred the investigations of the case to the Federal Investigation Agency, which filed a new FIR against Kunbhar’s murder, nominating 46 accused including senior police officers like Zardari and clerics like Sarhandi.

Development expert Lohar credits these actions to pressure from “the people of Sindh” compelling the government to take action. He has been involved in this activism, including a call for a second round of funeral prayers for Kunbhar at Janhero. Kunbhar’s younger brother, a leric, led the prayers on September 23, attended by thousands.

There have been protests and vigils against “blasphemy” murders in the past, particularly high-profile cases like Salmaan Taseer, Mashal Khan and Priyantha Diyawadana. However, the massive crowds that came out in Sindh to protest against Kunbhar’s murder were unprecedented.

Sindhi nationalist leaders, physicians, lawyers, cultural activists and journalists have joined demonstrations across the province, describing the slain physician as a martyr. Protests in Janhero were followed by a large “Rawadari” (Tolerance) March on October 13 in the Sindh provincial capital of Karachi. But police cracked down on protestors, arousing further outrage.

Musician Azhar Hussain Samoon told Sapan News that those who are issuing certificates of death and faith neither pray nor read the Quran and are unaware of the Hadith (sayings of the Prophet). “These individuals are taking it upon themselves to judge others and to kill,” he said.

Rallies celebrating the policemen who killed Kunbhar have described the physician as a “blasphemer”. The extremists’ slogan is: “Only one punishment for blasphemers: beheading!” They openly boast that they will not go to police stations or the courts but will “decide the fate of blasphemers on the spot, sending them to hell”.

In this atmosphere, while Shahnawaz’s father and others were running to save his body, their women and children were seeking shelter with neighbours. But no one would let them in to hide, as all were in fear.

“One of my sons has gone, where will my family and the children find shelter when the sun rises the next day?” his father Mohammad Saleh Kunbhar asked me despairingly over the phone that night.

Civil society leaders calling for better sense include Islamic religious scholar Maulana Irshad Irfani of Panj Pir Imambargah in Umerkot. He told Sapan News that the growing anxiety in Umerkot threatens to tear apart the district’s social fabric and is making its residents insecure.

There is an urgent need for dialogue to prevent further escalation, says development expert Naseer Memon. However, any such dialogue “should be based on fundamental principles like the rule of law”, he told Sapan News.

“Everyone has the right to fair trial, enshrined in the constitution of Pakistan,” he said. “No individual or group has the right to enforce their own laws based on any interpretation. Such mobs fall in the ambit of extremism and terrorism.”

Meanwhile, accusations and counter accusations on social media are fuelling more fear. Users are posting Facebook statuses warning that if their account is hacked and “blasphemous” content posted, they should not be held responsible.

This case also highlights the importance of integrating mental health evaluations into blasphemy investigations.

Kunbhar had been under psychiatric treatment for mental and behavioural disorders for the past four years according to the psychiatrist treating him, who is his nephew. The psychiatrist’s letter dated September 18, shared with the investigation team, states that Kunbhar suffered severe psychotic symptoms due to cannabis use but refused medication.

He had religious delusions and auditory hallucinations where he believed he had direct contact with divine figures. There was no intent to commit any “blasphemy”.

He is not the first individual suffering from mental health issues to be accused of “blasphemy” and killed.

In June, Salman Aziz, a man from Sialkot, Punjab, with a history of mental health issues, was accused of “gustakhi” and killed by a mob while he was visiting Swat in north-west Pakistan. The police had taken Aziz, accused of burning pages of the Qur’an, into custody, but a mob overwhelmed the police station. They injured police officers, dragged out the accused, killed him and set his body on fire.

Due to limited resources, stigma, and cultural beliefs, mental illnesses are often misunderstood or go untreated in Pakistan Individuals with mental disorders may display behaviour that is seen as blasphemous – but the person may lack the cognitive ability to understand the implications of their actions or the potential consequences. Behaviours termed as blasphemous may stem from untreated mental health conditions.

Mental health professionals and human rights activists have been advocating to reform laws and protect those with mental health issues. They argue for more robust legal and mental health evaluations before proceeding with accusations, as well as training for law enforcement to identify and manage cases involving mental illness.

The intersection of mental illness and blasphemy accusations remains a critical human rights issue in Pakistan. Why do “blasphemy” accusations not take into account mental health issues? Should those suffering from mental disorders be punished for their symptoms?

Hyderabad-based psychiatrist Mujahid Hussain Shah said that Pakistan’s legal framework must be reformed to incorporate psychological evaluations in blasphemy cases. He argues for a compassionate approach that aligns with Islamic values of mercy and justice.

Kunbhar’s tragic end is a stark reminder of the dangers of neglecting mental health awareness.

Parshotam Khatri, a well-known lawyer in Umerkot, also recommends amending the outdated Section 464 of Pakistan’s Criminal Procedure Code that applies to “the accused being lunatic”. Additionally, anyone accused of “blasphemy” should receive a mandatory mental health examination by a psychiatrist in the presence of a judicial magistrate.

Extra-judicial killings by police or mob lynching is result of weak writ of the state, said lawyer Ali Palh who qualified as a barrister from the UK and practices in Hyderabad. He told Sapan News that mafias and “elements with ulterior motives” are misusing the “blasphemy laws” for their own social, political, religious and economic interests.

A dangerous trend of cases being registered against youth implicated through Facebook or WhatsApp groups “points to a conspiracy” that the state must seriously deal with, Palh said. This should include revising the educational syllabus, “to change the mentality of coming generations”.

Extra-legal pressures prevent the accused from getting access to justice, like bail or legal defence. Palh suggests that bail trials of such cases should be held inside jail in order to prevent pressure on the judges from extremists who flood the courtrooms. He also suggests removing the names of law firms and lawyers from the case files that are made public, in order to prevent threats to these lawyers.

Extremists have been known to threaten, beat, and even kill lawyers defending clients accused of “blasphemy”. Even judges who acquitted such cases have been killed.

Community fears

Umerkot’s Hindu population, already vulnerable in an increasingly polarised environment, is “living in a state of terror that a single mistake or slip of the tongue could cost them their lives”, Khushal Premee, a Hindu teacher, told Sapan News.

“Hindus and Muslims are one Sindhi nation,” he said. “No extremist can divide us.” We Hindus do not show disrespect towards the Kaaba. We do not even sleep with our feet pointed in that direction.” He listed other ways in which his community shows respect to their Muslim neighbours, such as participating in the mourning for the martyrs of Karbala and special foods to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Utam Sangrasi, a Hindu journalist, shared other examples of interfaith harmony in Umerkot: Hindu girls cover their heads out of respect at the time of the Muslim call to prayer, Muslims do not slaughter cows in the area out of respect for Hindu religious sentiment and Muslim musicians sing Hindu devotional songs. Muslim families even adopt as their own daughters newly-wedded Hindu girls from other villages who marry into their villages.

“We’ve always respected Muslim practices and lived peacefully with our neighbours,” said Municipal Committee Councillor Dileep Moolchandani. “But now, there’s a fear that anything we say or do might be misinterpreted, and we could be accused of blasphemy.”

The government must urgently act to bring people together, Hindus, Muslims, religious organisations and nationalists, he added. It must hold discussions on the Shahnawaz case and how it could have been handled differently. “This is necessary to restore the trust and heal the differences,” Moolchandani said.

Those eager to make “blasphemy” accusations have been active for years. The involvement of responsible religious leaders has helped keep matters under control in Sindh.

In 2009, on the day of Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, when residents of Umerkot had come out on the streets to shower colours on people, walls and roads, someone wrote the word “Mohan”, a Hindu name, in Sindhi, on the road. A rumour began that a Hindu had written the word “Mohammad” on the road, a desecration of the name of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

A frenzied crowd gathered at the Umerkot Press Club, ready to set petrol pumps and houses of Hindus ablaze.

But the imam of the Jama Masjid, religious scholar Maulana Abdul Rehman Jamali, took the podium to address them. Ge asked them to let him investigate before taking any action.

Such was the respect he commanded that the mob waited while Jamali went to the site with a few police officers, members of the city’s Peace Committee and journalists including this reporter.

Jamali returned to affirm that the name written on the road might be Mohan but it was not Mohammad. The accusation had been made by a rival business group, he said.

The crowd dispersed peacefully.

Maulana Jamali passed away in 2016. However, the tradition of “rawadari” he upheld, facing the forces of obscurantism, continues. This, after all, is Sindh.

Yet fear remains a tangible force. Umerkot’s legacy of peaceful coexistence is under threat. Unless the government takes swift action to restore trust and heal the differences, the district risks losing the harmony that has long defined it.

AB Arisar is an award-winning journalist based in the historic Hindu-majority district of Umerkot bordering India and reports for the English daily Dawn. This Twitter handle is @allahbux.

This is a Sapan News feature.