Rift in China-Pakistan relations! Chinese citizen remanded for 14 days on charges of blasphemy
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Pakistan’s anti-terrorism court has sent a Chinese national accused of blasphemy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to judicial custody for 14 days. The media gave this news on Tuesday. According to the news published in the Dawn newspaper, the Chinese national Tian was arrested by the police on Sunday and on Monday he was taken to Abbottabad by an army helicopter for security reasons, as the police feared that the local people could harm him. The newspaper reported that the Anti-Terrorism Court of Abbottabad sent Tian, arrested in the blasphemy case, to judicial custody for 14 days. It is worth noting that Pakistan’s strict blasphemy law has a provision for death penalty if the crime is proved.
China took cognizance of the matter: At the same time, worried about the developments, China said on Tuesday that it is verifying the information that the police arrested one of its engineers on Sunday on charges of blasphemy amid a mob attack. It is believed that this incident may affect the relations between the two countries. According to the media, keeping in view its close ties with China, Pakistan took unprecedented steps to save the Chinese engineer and kept him in a high-security prison to protect him from mob attack.
China will help its citizen: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told the media that Beijing is verifying the information through the Chinese embassy in Pakistan. He said that “the Chinese government asks its citizens living abroad to follow the rules and regulations of the host country and to respect local customs and traditions.” In response to a question, Wenbin said, “Our embassy will provide assistance to the Chinese citizen as part of its duty.”
According to reports, the Chinese national works as a manager at Dasu Hydroelectric Project, Pakistan’s largest hydropower project in Upper Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and allegedly made blasphemous remarks on employees going to offer prayers on Friday. . According to locals, the Chinese manager complained to the workers working on the dam project that they were wasting “precious time” by taking leave for prayers.
“We arrested the foreign suspect on charges of blasphemy and terrorism and airlifted him to the Abbottabad Anti-Terrorism Court,” the paper quoted Mohammad Khalid, district police officer of Upper Kohistan. He said that after being produced in the court under tight security, the suspect was taken to Islamabad in a helicopter on Monday evening. Significantly, hundreds of local people and dam project workers blocked the important highway for hours demanding the arrest of the Chinese national, after which the Dasu police station lodged an FIR against Tian on Monday.
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