Faisalabad (AsiaNews) – According to Kamal Chughtai, a Christian lawyer, amendments to Pakistan's blasphemy laws are useless and cannot stop abuses. The 'brutal murder' three days ago of a man proves his point.

On April 20 in Spin Khak, a village in Nowshera district (North-West Frontier Province, NWFP), a mob of about 400 people attacked and killed Ashiq Nabi, who had been accused of blasphemy by relatives.

In a family squabble two days earlier, Ashiq had thrown a copy of the Qu'ran on the floor as his wife tried to get him to swear by it, and then fled the scene.

His uncle pressed charges against him for blasphemy on the same day and the police started looking for him.

In the meantime, a local Muslim religious official declared Ashiq a kafir, an infidel, punishable by death.

Two days later a mob of 400 people found and attacked him. Someone among the hundreds of attackers took out a gun and shot him to death.

The police later announced that it was looking for the unknown religious official who had pronounced the takfir against the victim in order to arrest him. At the same time, Ashiq's family has refused to take his body because they consider him to be an infidel.

Ashiq Nabi is the latest in a local list of victims, both Christian and Muslim, who have died because of the blasphemy laws, i.e. article 295, sections B and C, of the Pakistan Penal Code: the first section covers offences against the Qu'ran that carry life sentences; the second covers charges against defaming the prophet Muhammad punishable by death.

This latest tragic event has none the less provoked negative reactions among Muslims as well. Sheikh Mansoor, a Muslim and an attorney who chairs the Human rights Committee of Punjab Bar Council in Faisalabad, told AsiaNews that "this case must be investigated impartially because it seems that, like so many other blasphemy cases, there is something else behind [it]; people trying to settle personal disputes through blasphemy laws."

Mansoor, who also chairs an NGO called Oasis, said that these laws provide some people with "an easy way to defeat opponents and achieve their goals."

He stressed that these sections of the Penal Code should be repealed immediately to achieve inter-faith harmony and religious tolerance in Pakistani society.

The Catholic Church and minority communities concur. For a long time, they have been demanding the repeal of such laws and have openly criticised the government for adopting superficial amendments in October 2004. These changes are just procedural and not substantive since offences against Muhammad still carry the death penalty.

Sheikh Mansoor does not mince words. For him, in Pakistan "laws are made in close rooms and the government does not consult the people, whilst 80 per cent of the population do not want blasphemy laws and have demanded their repeal".