Farhan Javed Masih. (Christian Daily News-Morning Star News courtesy of family)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Police in Pakistan this week arrested a mentally challenged Christian on blasphemy charges despite being aware of his condition, sources said.

In Sahiwal, Punjab Province, Ghala Mandi police on Monday (Jan. 26) arrested Farhan Javed Masih, 28, after a local villager, Muhammad Bilal Khan, accused him of speaking against Islam and the religion’s sacred figures, said the suspect’s mother, Parveen Javed.

“We were at home when Bilal and some other Muslims came and told us that Farhan had committed blasphemy,” Javed told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “I pleaded with them to forgive him keeping in mind his mental state, but they did not listen to me and called the police, which arrested him.”

Javed, widowed six years ago and mother of three children in Chak 134-9/L village, said Farhan Masih’s mental health started deteriorating after his father’s death. His younger sister, Anum, said that his mental condition was known to everyone in the village.

“Getting him arrested for blasphemy will only aggravate his mental condition,” she said. “The police should have at least gotten his mental examination done before registering the FIR [First Information Report] against him.”

A member of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Parveen Javed said her son had completed a four-year nursing course and had worked at Adam Welfare Hospital in Sahiwal but was fired in 2023 due to mental illness and drug addiction.

“Farhan had become a heroin addict, which aggravated his mental health,” she said. “We have tried to get him treated, but it didn’t work. Ever since he lost his job, Farhan used to loiter around the village all day saying absurd things. The entire village knows that he is of unsound mind.”

His sister said the family was surviving on the earnings of her and her mother.

“My mother and I are already under a lot of pressure and stress due to my brothers’ illness and drug addiction problem,” she said. “Now we are on a knife’s edge thinking what will happen to Farhan given how serious the accusation is.”

Intent must be proven for conviction on blasphemy charges in Pakistan, which carry punishments ranging from fines and prison to the death penalty.

Complainant Bilal Khan stated in the FIR that he was going to water his crops when Farhan Masih arrived and started speaking absurdities.

“The holy personages of your religion are false, and I don’t want to live among Muslims, because you belong to inferior status,” Masih told him, according to Khan’s police complaint.

Police registered a case against the Christian under the blasphemy statutes, including Section 295-A, which calls for imprisonment of up to 10 years for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs; 298-A, with a punishment of up to 10 years in prison for disrespecting the wives and companions of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam; and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which includes a clause related to causing civil commotion or unrest and is punishable by a minimum five-year jail term.

Bishop Abraham Daniel of the Baptist Church in Sahiwal said there were 150 to 200 Christian families in the village.

“When I got news of the incident, I immediately contacted senior police officials and sought security for the Christian residents,” Daniel told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Thankfully, timely police deployment prevented any untoward incident from taking place there, and the situation is peaceful now.”

He said that Masih’s mental illness should have protected him against arrest on blasphemy charges.

“Farhan has no control over his mind and does not comprehend the seriousness of the things that he says,” Daniel said. “He did not commit blasphemy intentionally, and the police and court must take his mental condition into account while judging the matter.”

Church of Pakistan’s Moderator Bishop Azad Marshall said a senior officer should have intervened as police knew the matter involved a person of unstable mind.

“Farhan’s case is particularly concerning because his mental illness raises serious questions on his ability to understand or commit the alleged offense,” Marshall told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “We have repeatedly called for reforms in Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, but unfortunately our pleas continue to be ignored despite several people falling victim to false accusations of blasphemy every second day.”

The senior church leader also expressed concern over reports of organized groups trapping youths in blasphemy cases across the country, regretting that the dangerous trend had made Christians more vulnerable to persecution.

“Hundreds of people, including Muslims, are being accused and jailed for blasphemy, but it’s very strange that despite this issue being highlighted by the media and even the National Commission for Human Rights, nothing is being done to dismantle such organized groups,” he said.

Spike in False Accusations

In Muslim-majority Pakistan, any baseless blasphemy accusation can ignite public outrage and sometimes result in mob violence.

According to the Lahore-based advocacy group Center for Social Justice, 343 blasphemy cases were filed in Pakistan in 2024, including 19 Christians, five of them females.

Expressing alarm over an increase in false blasphemy accusations in Pakistan, the U.N. Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on Nov. 7 urged repeal or amending of the country’s widely condemned blasphemy laws.

The committee noted that false blasphemy accusations led to Islamist mob violence and recommended amending the laws in accordance with requirements of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In its concluding observations of the committee’s second periodic report on Pakistan, it stated concern over sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carry severe penalties, including the death penalty, and have a disproportionate impact on religious minorities.

“It is also concerned about the increasing number of persons incarcerated under blasphemy charges, the high number of blasphemy cases based on false accusations, violence against those accused of blasphemy, fostering vigilante justice, and allegations of entrapment of persons, in particular young persons, on accusations of on-line blasphemy under cybercrime laws,” the committee stated.

It emphasized ending use of cybercrime laws, such as the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016, to prosecute and detain those accused of breaching blasphemy laws online. The committee also urged the government to investigate allegations of massive abuse of blasphemy laws in connection with cybercrime laws and publish the results of the inquiries.

“[The committee] is also concerned about the chilling effect that criminal defamation laws, blasphemy, sedition and counter-terrorism laws, and other recently passed legislation have on the exercise of freedom of expression by journalists, activists, human rights defenders and members of ethnic and religious minorities,” it stated.

Urging Pakistan to take all necessary measures to guarantee prompt and fair trials for all persons charged with blasphemy or other offenses against religion, the committee highlighted jail conditions, stating that it was “also concerned about reports of abuse of women prisoners, including sexual violence, and that individuals accused of blasphemy are often placed in solitary confinement for extended periods of time. It remains concerned about the widespread recourse to prolonged pretrial detention.”

Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.

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