Lahore: A Christian man has been arrested in Pakistan's Punjab province for allegedly posting blasphemous messages on his Facebook account.
Police said they arrested Liaquat Usman yesterday on a complaint that he had posted blasphemous material on his Facebook account.
According to Usman's wife, a resident of Nabipura Sheikhupura district some 50 kilometers from here, her husband had a fight with some Muslim boys over teasing of girls in the locality.
"My husband stopped some boys from teasing girl students. A couple of days ago the boys manhandled Usman.
Instead of arresting the boys, police arrested Usman saying a complaint against him has been lodged for committing blasphemy," she said.
Initial investigations showed that the blasphemous messages were posted on the Facebook account of Usman a year ago but the suspect said he did not post them as someone else tagged them (on his account), said police official Sarfraz Khan.
"The man who allegedly tagged the blasphemous post on Usman's Facebook account is living abroad," he said, adding further investigation is underway and an FIR will be registered in the light of its finding.
Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan where 97 per cent of the population is Muslim.
Two high-profile politicians then Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti were murdered in 2011 after calling for reforms to the blasphemy law.
Pakistan's tough blasphemy law has attracted criticism from rights groups, who say they are frequently misused to settle personal scores.
