Pakistan’s federal agents arrested Christian last week under a blasphemous law mandating the death penalty in connection with materials that appeared on Facebook groups without his knowledge, sources said.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FIA) officials were detained from the railway quarters of 24-year-old Arsaran Gill in Mughalpura, Lahore, after returning home from his job as a sweeper on March 17, his brother Suleman Gill said.
The poor Catholic family was shocked when FIA officials said their son was arrested later that night and charged with sharing profanity content on Facebook groups. FIA officials didn’t let them see them that night, Sleman Gill said.
“The next morning, when we finally got to see him for a brief moment, we asked him about the accusation,” Gill told Star News for Christian Daily International Morning. “He told us that some unknown people had added him to two groups on Facebook without his knowledge, and he had no idea about the content shared on those pages.”
The FIA has indicted Alsarangir in several sections of Pakistan’s widely misused blasphemous law. This includes Section 295-C, which includes No. 295C. He was also charged under Section 11 of Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act 2016. It provides for imprisonment of up to seven years to prepare or disseminate information through information systems or devices that promote or promote hatred of a pagan, sect, or racial.
Rights advocates said poor Christians were likely targeted by “blatant asp business groups” who used honey traps and pornographic websites to lock up hundreds of innocent people, including Christians, in cases of false blatant asp online using honey traps and pornographic websites.
“The modus operandi is the same in all cases registered by the anti-blasic unit of the FIA cybercrime wing,” says Attorney Lazar Allah Rakha, who represents several people who were falsely charged in the ASP. “The unit is conspired with Muslim lawyers and activists to lock in innocent youths in blasphemous cases where they have forced money and defended the blatant abuse of the blatant asp law for other vested interests.”
Sleman Gill said their families don’t have the resources to hire legal defense for their brothers and called for support to Christian groups.
“My dad works as a daily wage worker, but Arsaran and I worked as sweepers,” he said. “We live in a rental quarter and barely meet the daily expenses of our family. In these circumstances, we don’t know how we pursue legal actions for the release of our brother.”
On February 2, the Islamabad High Court advised the Pakistan government to establish a four-member committee to investigate alleged conspiracy between the FIA and Muslim clergy that have hit more than 400 innocent people, including Christians, in the surge in false blasphemous ASP cases over the past two years.
The committee must include retired judges of the High Court or Supreme Court, retired senior officers of the FIA, senior information technology experts who know the public interest and who greatly support the existence of the committee, who greatly support the technically complex chains that the committee must understand.
The court directed the Cabinet Secretary to place the outline for consideration before the federal cabinet, and the additional Attorney General must submit the Cabinet decision to the court prior to the next hearing.
The order was issued in response to a petition filed by the families of more than 100 people accused of sharing profanity content online. The petitioner alleged that the “profanity business group” fraudulently locked up their loved ones and shared profanity content on social media platforms, spurring the establishment of an investigation committee and assessment of the legitimacy of the FIR registered by the FIA.
At a hearing on Friday (March 21), Khan expressed his dissatisfaction with the government’s response to the petition, slowly calling it incomplete.
He noted that issues affecting the lives of hundreds have made little progress since the first order was issued on September 13th.
The court emphasized that the Ministry of Home Affairs did not provide a conclusive statement regarding whether applications for applications that constitute the Board of Inquiry have been received. Similarly, the FIA also did not state clearly whether the evidence in question was manufactured or planted, he said.
The judge then ordered a live broadcast of the minutes of the case, saying it became a serious public interest issue. He said the court was filled beyond its capabilities, with more people gathering outside and instructing staff to make immediate arrangements for the case.
Pakistan ranked 8th on the 2025 World Watchlist, where it’s the hardest place to become a Christian.
