Pakistan | Killer Security Guards And Rising Religious Intolerance

Moments after killing his bank manager for alleged blasphemy, Ahmad Nawaz waved to his supporters from the rooftop of a police station.

“Long live Tajdar-e-Khatm-e-Nubuwwat [King of the Finality of Prophethood]. Beheading is the only punishment of a blasphemer. We are servants of the Prophet,” he cried to the cheers of more than 200 gathered at the building in Quaidabad, Punjab province.

Videos shared on social media showed the crowd kissing Nawaz as he rallied in the streets of Quaidabad. A policeman filmed the speeches with his smartphone as a local cleric asked all to disperse peacefully.

“I am hundred percent satisfied with the police action. If the police violates, the lovers can gather just like today. I request all to trust your clerics. We have asked for a blasphemy investigation,” said Zafar-ul-Haq Bandialvi, holding a microphone.

“Police promised that Nawaz is to be charged for attempted murder, which is a bailable offence, and not under the Anti-Terror Act. He’ll be released soon and we’ll welcome him with celebration.”

Nawaz confessed to the murder.

“He was a blasphemer. He didn’t believe in the prophets of Allah. He stated that prophets are also dependent on other humans and that obligatory prayers are enough and supplementary prayers are not necessary,” Nawaz said, sipping tea at the police station.

The security guard was arrested on Nov. 4 for shooting Malik Imran Hanif, manager of the National Bank of Pakistan branch in Quaidabad. Hanif died after being admitted to a hospital in Lahore. Police officials have expressed doubt over the guard’s claim and cited personal grievances as the motive behind the murder.

The guard was fired a few months ago for not arriving on duty on time. He was rehired and had an argument with Hanif, said Khushab district police officer Tariq Wilayat.

The family of the deceased manager proclaimed their faith in a video message.

“Hanif was killed due to a personal dispute. The guard is trying to show he was not a lover of the prophet. This is all wrong. We are true lovers and have no relation with Qadianis. We demand a proper investigation,” said his uncle.

Extrajudicial killings

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in deeply conservative Pakistan where mere allegations have led to extrajudicial killings and mob violence. The Ahmadis, viewed as heretical by many in Pakistan, are one of the most persecuted minority communities in the country. Declared to be non-Muslim according to the constitution of Pakistan in 1974, Ahmadis are frequently attacked, accused of blasphemy and subjected to discrimination in education and the workplace.

In July, Tahir Ahmad Nasim, a former member of the Ahmadi community, was shot dead inside a courtroom in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Lawyers later posted selfies with his killer, a former student at an Islamic school. In August, junior lawyer Tufail Khan was arrested for allegedly providing a pistol to the assassin.

Meanwhile, thousands of traders in Rawalpindi city protested on Nov. 4 against [allegedly] blasphemous remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron, shouted anti-Charlie Hebdo slogans, burned French flags and urged a boycott of French products.

They also burned an effigy of President Macron and demanded the severance of diplomatic ties with France.

In 2016, Pakistan executed former police bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri, who gunned down Punjab governor Salman Taseer over his opposition to the controversial blasphemy laws. Qadri is hailed as a hero by Islamist groups. Every day, dozens visit Qadri’s shrine built on a family plot bordering Islamabad, the federal capital.

Church reaction

In a recent press statement, the Catholic bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) expressed concern over rising religious intolerance in Pakistan.

“Unfortunately, Pakistani society has become increasing intolerant and living as a religious minority is becoming extremely challenging. The government must work to safeguard the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan as enshrined in our constitution,” said Archbishop Joseph Arshad, chairperson of the NCJP, and Father Emmanuel Yousaf (Mani), national director of the NCJP, in a joint statement.

Reverend Amjad Niamat, chairman of the Ecumenism and Interfaith Harmony Commission of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, condemned the recent killing.

“I am upset since the tragedy yesterday. Murders are being justified in the name of religion. We cannot trust Muslim security guards in this situation,” said the pastor, who lives at United Christian Hospital of Lahore.

“Our society is heading in a dangerous direction. The writ of the state and courts is being undermined and people are meting out capital punishment on their own. Even the educated ones need training in civility.”

Lutheran Bishop Jimmy Mathew of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province demanded a repeal of blasphemy laws.

“We respect the laws of our country but the blasphemy law seems useless nowadays due to lack of implementation. The trend of extrajudicial murders is damaging the image of our country. The alleged blasphemers are not given a chance to prove their innocence,” he told UCA News.

Source: eurasiareview.com, Staff, November 9, 2020

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Alabama Set To Carry Out Execution This Week

Alabama is preparing to execute Jeremy Williams, who pled guilty to the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. The execution is scheduled for Thursday (August 13) at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Williams, who is 41, requested the death penalty and waived his right to appeal, making this the first execution in Alabama this year.

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Alabama executes Jeremy Williams

Tennessee and Oklahoma have put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men in one day. Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a maid at a motel in 1985, and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Tennessee executes Darrell Hines

The state has spent millions of dollars over decades to execute a seriously ill man who was already incarcerated. The state of Tennessee executed death row inmate Darrell Hines Thursday morning, according to an advocacy group. No formal announcement of the execution has been issued by state leaders yet. The execution was slated for 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [DPN update] Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT. His last meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

Tennessee set to execute Anthony Darrell Hines

Barring any last-minute interventions, the Tennessee Department of Correction will execute Anthony Darrell Hines by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville Thursday morning. This week, two courts had the opportunity to halt the execution: the federal court in Middle Tennessee and the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday he personally would not prevent the execution. “After deliberate consideration of Anthony Darrell Hines’ request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” he said in a written statement. The U.S. Supreme Court has not granted a stay or reprieve.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issues three death penalty reprieves

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued execution reprieves for three death row inmates on Friday. In a statement, DeWine said he issued reprieves for Keith LaMar, Scott Group, and Davel Chinn, all of whom were set to be executed early next year. LaMar was scheduled to be executed on Jan. 13, 2027. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the deaths of five inmates during a 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. He received the death penalty for four of the killings. His new execution date is Jan. 13, 2030. Watch the latest NBC4 headlines in the video player above.

Arizona prosecutors seek death penalty a second time for 2 inmates

County Attorney Brad Miller said Aug. 6 that the nature of the attack and both men's past criminal records meet the strict legal bar required for execution under Arizona law. FLORENCE, Ariz. - Pinal County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two inmates accused of violently killing a fellow prisoner behind bars, officials announced Thursday. Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Pete Van Winkle and Tracy Hampton in connection with the fatal attack on Kenneth Thompson.

Iran’s War on Women: Executions, Floggings, and the Politics of Fear

The Iranian regime is increasingly using death sentences, corporal punishment, and judicial persecution against women—not only to silence dissent but also to intimidate a society demanding change. The Iranian regime has long viewed women as central to the country’s struggle for freedom—and therefore as central targets of repression. The nationwide uprising of 2022 fundamentally altered the political landscape, demonstrating that Iranian women were no longer merely participants in protest movements but among their principal organizers and symbols. Since then, the authorities have steadily intensified their campaign against women, expanding the use of executions, imprisonment, corporal punishment, and judicial intimidation.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog