After being accused of blasphemy, the boy, in an act of reparation – chopped off his hand and presented it to the imam on a plate.
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Local police told CNN that Mohammad Anwar took the shocking action after he “misheard the words of Shabbir Ahmed during a sermon”.
A Muslim cleric has been arrested in Pakistan after a teenage boy he mistakenly accused of blasphemy sawed off his own hand in a grisly act of penance.
It was a simple misunderstanding of a question asked by a holy man, but it cost a 15-year-old Pakistani boy his hand, and landed an imam under arrest.
Police filed anti-terrorism charges against Ahmed and arrested him yesterday, police chief Ali said.
The boy, who felt ashamed after being called a blasphemer, cut off his own hand.
Police arrested the cleric – accusing him of hate speech inciting violence, an offense under Pakistan’s anti-terror National Action Plan – once they learned about what happened, Ali said.
He asked if anyone had stopped praying, and the teenager raised his hand after apparently mishearing the question, AFP reported.
“Such illiterate imams of mosques should not be allowed to deliver speeches”, Nausher said.
There will be no police investigation. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), local courts sentenced three people to death, six to life imprisonment, and three others to two years’ imprisonment for blasphemy in 2014.
Pakistan inherited its blasphemy law from former colonial power Britain, which devised the code to ensure communal harmony in the then undivided India.
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Critics including European governments say the country’s blasphemy laws are often misused to settle personal scores.
