An eight-year-old Hindu boy is being detained in protective police custody in Pakistan after being charged with blasphemy. The boy has become the youngest person ever to be charged with blasphemy in the country and could be sentenced to death, according to several media reports.
Reportedly, last month, the boy was accused of urinating on a carpet in the library of a madrassa, which holds religious books.
The boy's family has gone into hiding, according to a global media outlet and many Hindus in the conservative region of Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab province have abandoned their homes after a Muslim mob stormed a Hindu temple following the boy's release on bail last week.
So far, twenty people were detained on August 7 in connection with the temple attack. In addition, troops were stationed in the area.
"He (the boy) is not even aware of such blasphemy issues and he has been falsely indulged in these matters," a member of the boy's family told an international media outlet from an unknown location. "He still doesn't understand what his fault was and why he was put in jail for a week."
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"We have left our shops and work, the entire community is terrified, and we fear backlash; we don't want to return to this neighbourhood since we don't see any tangible and serious action being taken against the offenders or to protect the minority who live here," says the family.
In Pakistan, no one this young has ever been charged with blasphemy and this incident has shocked legal experts. Although there have been no blasphemy executions in the nation since the death penalty was established in 1986, defendants are frequently assaulted and sometimes killed by mobs.
According to several media reports, the External Affairs Ministry of India summoned a Pakistani diplomat in New Delhi to denounce the attack and urge that Hindu families residing in the Muslim-majority country be secure.