LAHORE: Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistan has absolved 115 suspects involved in the torching of more than 100 houses of Christians at Joseph Colony in the Badami Bagh area following an alleged blasphemy incident in 2013.
The suspects were freed was following a lack of evidence, reports a local newspaper. A charged mob had rampaged through Joseph Colony and set on fire the houses following alleged blasphemy committed by a suspect named Sawan Masih.
Hundreds of residents were displaced following the violence. A court had tried Masih and sentenced him to death in a verdict delivered in 2014. During Saturday’s hearing, advocate Ghulam Murtaza Chaudhry argued that the prosecution had failed to bring even a single piece of evidence to establish the charges against the suspects. He asked the court to acquit them. The presiding judge, Chaudhry Mohammad Azam, accepted the arguments of defence and acquitted the suspects for lack of evidence.
The presiding judge, Chaudhry Mohammad Azam, accepted the arguments of defence and acquitted the suspects for lack of evidence.
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