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| India-Pakistan |
| Push-cart vendor convicted for selling hate material in Jhelum |
| 2016-02-19 |
| [DAWN] ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Wednesday convicted a cart owner known as Saifullah, alias Saifi, for selling 'hate material'. He was convicted for selling CDs on his cart that contained hate speech. The conviction, rare as it is, entails 10 years in prison and a Rs100,000 fine. According to the verdict issued by ATC judge Rai Mohammad Ayub Khan Marth, the convict will have to serve another four months behind bars if the fine is not submitted. The holy man who delivered the speeches the convict was selling is, however, remains very much on the lam. "Countering hate speech and myrmidon material" is part of the 20-point agenda of the National Action Plan (NAP), introduced by the federal government in the aftermath of the Dec 16, 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on May 22, 2015 arrested Saifullah, a cart owner from Jhelum, for selling CDs containing speeches by the cleric Mulazim Hussain Dogar. The CD is titled ‘Collection of Speeches of Maulana Mulazim Hussain Dogar Volume IV’. Saifullah, who is 26, sells goods on his cart in a market in the Jhelum district to provide for his family. According to the prosecution, Dogar may be the principal suspect in the matter, but he could not be apprehended because his whereabouts remained unknown. There is, however, a Facebook page running under his name which currently has 3,149 followers. According to the page, Maulana Mulazim Hussain is a public figure, and a “famous scholar of Islam from Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat” (ASWJ). ASWJ is a banned outfit, according to the list of proscribed organisations. According to a CTD inspector, the investigating officer did not try to investigate the cleric or his role in the matter. He said the investigation focused exclusively on the suspect, but added that the government has already proscribed ASWJ and had banned the cleric from making public speeches. PTI MNA Mohammad Sarwar Khan said that unless the government takes strict action against the delivery of hate speech, sectarianism and religious extremism would not be curtailed. “Action against the CD seller containing hate material is good, but the root cause – which is the clerics who deliver hate speeches – should also be arrested and punished accordingly,” he said. Analyst Imtiaz Gul said that NAP is big on promises, but fails to deliver due to questionable political will. He said the legal system also lacks the capacity and will to prosecute the real offenders. “The government is also unable to prosecute the troublemakers because of electoral constituencies considerations, and the other issue is corruption within the system and lacunae in the anti-terrorism laws,” he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 He was convicted for selling CDs on his cart that contained hate speech. This is different than T-shirts, how? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2016-02-19 15:32 |