Haroon Shehzad, a Christian man, aged about 49 years old was held accused of Blasphemy on 30th June 2023. He shared a post of the text from 1st Corinthians chapter 10: 18–22 on 27th June 2023 two days before Eid-Ul-Azha.

The Complainant, namely Imran Ullah Sargodha, is also residing in the same village, and is often aggrieved with the strong social status of the accused/victim. He saw the post and connected it maliciously to the Eid’s essence of Sacrifice. Tensions flared up in the Chak 49 Shumali village on Friday after Imran Ullah instigated the villagers and started announcement in the different mosques about the blasphemous actions of the Christians.

“Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?”

Dozens of Christian families fled from their homes in a village near Sargodha city after Haroon was accused of blasphemy for sharing a verse from the Bible on Facebook. Though Shahzad’s post contained no personal comment related to the Muslim holy festival of Eid Ul Adha, which was celebrated worldwide on June 29-July 1. The family of the victim left the village, whereas both the parents of the victim who are paralyzed and two sisters-in-law of the victim were arrested by the police. The paralyzed parents were left behind all alone in the house. The rest of the family was scattered and had nowhere to go.

The Voice was contacted by the family of the Victim, and they requested for help. The Voice team reached the village around 5:00pm on the same day of the registration of FIR and secured the victim and the family. The Voice team kept the victim secured and took him to the court safely for his pre-arrest bail. On Monday 3rd of July 2023 Haroon Shehzad’s pre-arrest (bail before arrest) was granted by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge Sargodha, and later when Haroon went to the police station to join the investigation and record his statement the Police arrested Haroon and took him into illegal custody in the name of safe keeping. The Voice team asked the police to hand him over to the Voice team and we will take responsibility for producing him in the investigation. But the police have their own ulterior motives and they refused to give the legal custody of Haroon Shahzad to his family or to the Voice team instead they threatened us and held us responsible for the riots in the village.

The Voice talked to the District Police officer about the illegal act of the police, but he did not support the Voice and said that it is in the interest of the safety of the Victim/accused. Instead, he said that The Voice’s actions of going into the bail process have made things difficult.

The next date of hearing for the confirmation of Haroon’s bail on 11th July 2023. We know that this is no offence, and there are many legal discrepancies in the case but taking into consideration the current circumstances of the locality, Country overall and a recent incidence of the blasphemy in Sweden, we do not find it anyway in our favor. However, I am not hopeless, and I am not scared of any circumstances. I believe that God will not leave us alone, and he will give us success. I do not find any reason not to follow the legal process of bail and join the investigation afterwards as a problem for the police. The police are biased and not only in this case, they are always biased towards Christians. There are thousands of cases lying pending in the courts and in the police stations against the in humane behavior, torture and in justice of police towards the Christian citizens and yet, they expect trust from the Christian citizens of Pakistan.