Persecution of minority communities Prohibition of freedom of thought and expression Ban on blasphemy Death penalty

Pakistan: Death Row, WhatsApp Edition

Ten days after Pakistan’s Supreme Court confirmed a Christian’s death sentence for a blog, a Lahore court sent four more men to death row over WhatsApp messages. In Sahiwal, the police charged a man they themselves describe as mentally unstable. At the end of June, 491 people accused of blasphemy were still awaiting trial in Punjab’s prisons.

By Delirium Islamicum Published October 29, 2026

Satirical cartoon: in a Pakistani courtroom, a nervous judge raises his gavel over four smartphones standing in the dock like defendants, each under a small noose, while an angry crowd in the public gallery films him with their own phones and shakes their fists; in the doorway, a Pakistani minister, his wrists bound with red tape, shrugs as more men walk in. — The phones are condemned, the crowd films, the government shrugs.

The appeal after the appeal

On October 7, as we reported on October 20, Pakistan's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence of Qaiser Ayub, a Christian convicted of running a blog that insulted the Prophet, and acquitted his brother Amoon. Their lawyers now plan to file a review petition, as early as this week according to Fox News, arguing that no evidence ever tied Qaiser to the blog. They will also ask for a presidential pardon. The American Center for Law and Justice, which backs them, fears the ruling will weigh on everyone now jailed for blasphemy, including at least three of its own clients. Fox News cites another death-row case: a young man accused at 16, in 2017, sentenced to death five years later, whose appeal has been postponed again and again since 2022.

According to the ACLJ, mobs often turn up in the courtroom at blasphemy hearings. In one trial, men reportedly filmed themselves threatening to kill the judge unless he handed down a death sentence.

"There is only one punishment for one who insults the Prophet."— Caption of a video reportedly showing a lawyer who handles many blasphemy cases celebrating Qaiser Ayub's sentence, as translated by Fox News, October 2026

One WhatsApp group, four death sentences

On October 17, a Lahore sessions court sentenced four men to death over material insulting the Quran and sacred figures, shared on Facebook and in a WhatsApp group "presented as a Quranic education group". The case was opened in 2022 by the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency, and one suspect's home was searched two days before the case was even registered. The judge acknowledged procedural defects but found the forensic evidence sufficient. He did clear the four of conspiracy, having found that each acted separately: one group, four solo blasphemies. On top of death, each got life imprisonment and another twenty years under other sections, to run concurrently. The Lahore High Court must confirm the sentences, and the four have 30 days to appeal.

Dawn does not say whether they claim they were set up. But the state's own National Commission for Human Rights has found that at least 450 people were falsely charged with blasphemy through an organised blackmail and extortion scheme, according to Human Rights Watch. An Islamabad High Court order to investigate this alleged blasphemy business was overruled on review in July 2025, notes the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its report on religious freedom, released on October 15. About fifty people caught up in these cases have reportedly been released on bail or acquitted. The alleged entrappers have still not been investigated.

Diagnosis: blasphemy

In Sahiwal, police arrested a man on October 16 accused of opening the Quran and sitting on it. Residents said he also beat his wife whenever she tried to stop him. The district police chief told Dawn that the man appeared "mentally challenged and unstable" and that medical tests had backed this up. The case registered against him concerns the Quran, under a section punishable by life imprisonment, and he was sent to judicial custody.

Disability is no shield either. HRCP describes a visually impaired man of 49, the sole breadwinner of his family, arrested for blasphemy in August 2025 after a park contractor allegedly tried to extort money from him. He was released in June, ten months later.

The waiting room

On June 28, Punjab's prisons alone held 559 people in blasphemy cases, according to HRCP. Seven had their death sentences confirmed, and 491 had not yet been tried. At the launch of the report, the commission's vice-chair for Punjab, Raja Ashraf, warned that blasphemy accusations have become a "means of exploiting and endangering vulnerable people".

Islamabad told UN experts this year that the executive is constitutionally barred from intervening in individual cases. The crowds in the courtroom face no such restriction.

Verses and hadiths related to this article

“Surely those who offend Allah and His Messenger are condemned by Allah in this world and the Hereafter. And He has prepared for them a humiliating punishment.”

“Narrated Abdullah Ibn Abbas: A blind man had a slave-mother who used to abuse the Prophet (ﷺ) and disparage him. He forbade her but she did not stop. He rebuked her but she did not give up her habit. One night she began to slander the Prophet (ﷺ) and abuse him. So he took a dagger, placed it on her belly, pressed it, and killed her. [...] When the morning came, the Prophet (ﷺ) was informed about it. He assembled the people and said: I adjure by Allah the man who has done this action and I adjure him by my right to him that he should stand up. Jumping over the necks of the people and trembling the man stood up. He sat before the Prophet (ﷺ) and said: Messenger of Allah! I am her master; she used to abuse you and disparage you. I forbade her, but she did not stop, and I rebuked her, but she did not abandon her habit. I have two sons like pearls from her, and she was my companion. Last night she began to abuse and disparage you. So I took a dagger, put it on her belly and pressed it till I killed her. Thereupon the Prophet (ﷺ) said: Oh be witness, no retaliation is payable for her blood.”

“If you question them, they will certainly say, “We were only talking idly and joking around.” Say, “Was it Allah, His revelations, and His Messenger that you ridiculed?” Make no excuses! You have lost faith after your belief. If We pardon a group of you, We will punish others for their wickedness.”

“Indeed, We revealed the Torah, containing guidance and light, by which the prophets, who submitted themselves to Allah, made judgments for Jews. So too did the rabbis and scholars judge according to Allah’s Book, with which they were entrusted and of which they were made keepers. So do not fear the people; fear Me! Nor trade my revelations for a fleeting gain. And those who do not judge by what Allah has revealed are truly the disbelievers.”

“Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: There are three (persons) whose actions are not recorded: a sleeper till he awakes, an idiot till he is restored to reason, and a boy till he reaches puberty.”

“Narrated Abu Hurayrah: The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who has been appointed a judge has been killed without a knife.”

“It is narrated on the authority of Tariq b. Shihab: It was Marwan who initiated (the practice) of delivering khutbah (address) before the prayer on the 'Id day. A man stood up and said: Prayer should precede khutbah. He (Marwan) remarked, This (practice) has been done away with. Upon this Abu Sa'id remarked: This man has performed (his duty) laid on him. I heard the Messenger of Allah as saying: He who amongst you sees something abominable should modify it with the help of his hand; and if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should do it with his tongue, and if he has not strength enough to do it, (even) then he should (abhor it) from his heart, and that is the least of faith.”