Islamabad: The Pakistan government on Thursday said that an official probe found that police staged a fake encounter to kill a doctor who has been accused of blasphemy, a senior minister said. Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar, a medical doctor, accused of sharing blasphemous posts on social media, was shot dead during an alleged gun battle with the police on September 19 in the Mirpurkhas area of Sindh province, the authorities had said.
However due to criticism by the civil society and the circumstances of the killing, the provincial government instituted an inquiry and its findings were shared with media by the Sindh Home Minister, Ziaul Hassan Lanjar.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Lanjar said that the probe found that police “staged the encounter”.
According to the probe, the committee “unanimously” agreed after interviewing police and seeing other evidence that Mirpurkhas police “killed him (Shahnawaz) in a managed encounter and tried to give it a legal cover but failed”.
He also announced that SSP Mirpurkhas had been suspended and that the deputy inspector general (DIG) was “involved” in the incident. “We are ordering an FIR against him,” Lanjar said. The report recommended that the deceased’s family record a statement and file a first information report (FIR) under the relevant provisions, whilst suggesting “strict departmental action” against personnel from both Umerkot and Mirpurkhas police who allegedly celebrated the killing.
The killing and the subsequent incidents sparked an outrage because the dead were not allowed to be buried in his village graveyard and when the family shifted the body to a remote area for burial, extremists attacked and set the body on fire.
Blasphemy laws were enacted by former military ruler Ziaul Haq in the 1080s. Those charged under the laws become an easy target for extremist elements.
According to the Center for Social Justice (CSJ), a think-tank, nearly 3,000 persons have been accused of blasphemy since 1987. It also stated that at least seven persons accused of blasphemy have been killed by individuals or mobs across Pakistan since January. A total of 94 people accused of blasphemy were killed in mob attacks between 1994 and 2023.
(With inputs from agency)
