US urged Pakistan to take motion over the killing of an American nationwide.
Isamabad:
The USA urged Pakistan on Thursday to take motion over the killing of an American nationwide in a crowded courtroom as he confronted trial for blasphemy.
Tahir Ahmed Naseem was shot a number of instances at shut vary as he appeared within the northwestern metropolis of Peshawar on Wednesday.
“We urge Pakistan to take fast motion and pursue reforms that may forestall such a shameful tragedy from occurring once more,” the US State Division mentioned in a tweet.
As Naseem’s arraignment started earlier than the decide, a younger man within the room pulled out a handgun and shot him within the head, officers and witnesses mentioned. The younger man was arrested on the spot.
On Thursday, supporters of a hardline Islamist group held a protest rally in Peshawar calling for the discharge of the suspected shooter, saying he had defended his faith.
The aftermath of the killing, captured on video and shared on social media, confirmed Naseem slumped over in a chair beside the decide’s bench, as different shackled prisoners, some with bloodied garments, had been taken from the room.
“The younger man who shot him had no regret, and mentioned he noticed the Prophet Muhammad in a dream the evening earlier than,” Latif Afridi, who heads the Peshawar Excessive Courtroom Bar Affiliation, advised Reuters.
Afridi questioned how the person managed to get a gun into the courtroom given that each one guests are checked totally at three totally different factors.
“It’s seemingly somebody who can go with out being checked, maybe a police officer or a lawyer, handed the shooter the gun after he entered,” he mentioned.
Based on the cost sheet in opposition to Naseem, seen by Reuters, the American was in touch with a pupil at an Islamic faculty in Pakistan on Fb and advised him he was a messiah despatched by God.
Naseem later met the coed in Peshawar, after which police arrested him and charged him with numerous crimes, together with insulting the Prophet Muhammad, which might convey the demise penalty in Pakistan.
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