LAST week an unusual press conference took place at the National Press Club in Islamabad. Held by the parents and relatives of youth who are languishing in jail on charges of having posted and/ or shared blasphemous content online, the speakers called for the federal government to constitute an inquiry commission to probe into the activities of the ‘blasphemy business group,’ that they claim had entrapped their loved ones in false cases.

The existence of such a group isn’t a figment of their imagination or an attempt to shield their loved ones from consequences; the term originates from a report prepared by the special branch of the Punjab Police.

In it, the special branch accuses this group of “trapping” young people in blasphemy cases in an “organised manner”. This gang is, as per the special branch, the complainant in about 90 per cent of such cases reported to and registered by the FIA and the vast majority of those entrapped are Muslim boys and girls in their 20s or even younger, and who invariably hail from poor or lower-middle class families. Several hundreds of these young people are languishing in jails across Pakistan.

Typically, the process starts........

© Dawn