LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) Blasphemy charges against a Christian preacher in Pakistan were filed not with help from members of the Ahmadiyya religion but only by Islamic extremists, sources said.
A source in the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan said the complainant in the case, Shiraz Farooqi, was not a member of the Ahmadiyya, a religion with roots in Islam but regarded as heretical by Muslims. As Ahmadis are often victims of persecution, they would never consider helping Muslims persecute others, he said.
Hafiz Ihtesham Ahmed, general secretary of the Islamist group that filed blasphemy charges against Christian preacher Shagufta Kiran, confirmed that Farooqi is a member of the group, the Tehreek Tahaffuz-i-Namoos-Risalat (Movement for Protection of Finality of Prophethood).
Ahmed also said the person who supplied screenshots of text messages as evidence was not an Ahmadi. He said admins for the WhatsApp group where Kiran allegedly forwarded the comments invited members of the Tehreek tahaffuz-i-Namoos-Risalat to monitor the social media group’s conversations.