A court in Pakistan has sentenced a Hindu college teacher to life imprisonment over blasphemy in Sindh province, local media has reported, adding that the session court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convict.
Nautan Lal, who is a teacher at the Government Degree College, was arrested in 2019 and he has been in jail since as an under-trial prisoner.
His bail application was rejected twice during this period, Daily Pakistan reported on Tuesday.
On September 14, 2019, a video was shared on social media in which a student claimed that the owner of a local school had committed blasphemy.
It came as Pakistan reported a total of 1,415 cases of blasphemy in the country since 1947, a think tank, Centre for Research and Security Studies said.
According to the think tank report, a total of 18 women and 71 men were extra-judicially killed over blasphemy from 1947 to 2021. However, as per the think tank, the actual number of cases is believed to be higher as not all cases are reported, according to Dawn.
"The actual number is believed to be higher because not all blasphemy cases get reported in the press," the report said, adding more than 70 per cent of the accused were reported from Punjab.
( With inputs from ANI )
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