New Delhi:
A 22-year-old student in Pakistan has been sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy over WhatsApp messages, the BBC reported on Friday.
In this week's ruling, a court in Pakistan's Punjab province said the student had been sentenced to death because of photos and videos containing derogatory words about the Prophet Mohammed.
Another student, 17, was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty because he is a minor, the BBC reported.
Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan. However, so far no one has been executed by the state for this, but countless suspects have been lynched by angry mobs.
The action against the student was taken after a complaint was filed by the cybercrime unit of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Lahore in 2022. Complainant claimed that he received the videos and photos from three different cell phone numbers.
The FIA said it had examined the complainant's phone and found that “obscene material” had been sent to him.
However, lawyers for the two students have said they are “trapped in a false case,” the BBC reported, adding that the father of the death row convict will appeal to the Lahore High Court.
Earlier in August last year, more than 80 Christian homes and 19 churches in Pakistan were destroyed after two Christian brothers were accused of 'desecrating' the Quran.
In one of Pakistan's most high-profile cases, Christian woman Asia Bibi found herself at the center of a decade-long blasphemy feud that ultimately saw her death sentence overturned and ended with her fleeing the country.