PAKISTAN: ANTI-TERROR COURT GIVES DEATH TO GUARD FOR KILLING BANK MANAGER OVER BLASPHEMY ALLEGATIONS

July 13, 2021:

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on 30 June 2021 sentenced to death a former security guard for killing his bank’s manager over blasphemy allegations in the country’s eastern Punjab province last year.
The court in Sargodha city, handed down the capital punishment to Ahmed Nawaz and also imposed a fine of Rs 600,000 (USD 3,795) on him after the prosecution presented witnesses.
Nawaz, who was posted as a security guard at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) branch in Khushab district, last year opened fire at his boss -- branch manager Malik Imran Hanif -- killing him on the spot.
Later, he claimed that the bank manager had committed blasphemy. Local clerics came out in his support and laid a siege of the police station in which he was detained.
The police registered a murder case against Nawaz and included terrorism clauses on the complaint of the victim’s family which denied that Hanif had committed any blasphemy.
It claimed that Nawaz had played the “blasphemy card” to get away from punishment.
The victim’s family said that Nawaz had a grudge against Hanif for not giving him an annual increment and that he had a quarrel with Hanif before he shot him dead.