A court in Pakistan condemned a Hindu college teacher to life imprisonment for blasphemy in Sindh province, and the session court also imposed a Rs 50,000 fine on the convict.
Nautan Lal, a teacher at the Government Degree College, was arrested in 2019 and has been held as an under-trial prisoner ever since. During this time, his bail plea was denied twice, according to the Daily Pakistan on Tuesday.
On September 14, 2019, a video was shared on social media in which a student claimed that the owner of a local school had committed blasphemy.
It came as Pakistan reported a total of 1,415 cases of blasphemy in the country since 1947, a think tank, Centre for Research and Security Studies said.
According to the think tank report, a total of 18 women and 71 men were extra-judicially killed over blasphemy from 1947 to 2021. However, as per the think tank, the actual number of cases is believed to be higher as not all cases are reported, according to Dawn.
"The actual number is believed to be higher because not all blasphemy cases get reported in the press," the report said, adding more than 70 per cent of the accused were reported from Punjab.
