In a rare move in Pakistan, police discharged a 72-year-old Christian from a blasphemy case after the complainant admitted she had falsely accused him, Morning Star News reported.
Younis Bhatti, known as Bhagat, had been arrested and charged Feb. 10 with desecrating the Quran under Section 295-B of Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes, which carries a mandatory life sentence.
RELATED: Check out more stories on the persecuted church here.
Sosan Fatima, a member of the Brethren house church founded by the Bhatti family, had accused him of forcing his way into her house when she was reading the Quran, assaulting her and tearing the Islamic scripture. In her complaint, Fatima also stated that Bhatti opposed the family’s alleged conversion to Islam.
Confession
Bhatti had provided Fatima free housing on his land, and she had objected to his plans to divide her home with another needy Christian family. He said that after police heard his statement, officers brought Fatima and her husband to the station the next night and questioned them in his presence. He added that police also made efforts to record the statements of other area Christians.
“After some time, Fatima broke down and confessed that she had falsely accused me,” Bhatti told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “She said that her husband and two other Christians had hatched this plan 10 days ago to stop me from dividing the property.”
Rescued from ‘dangerous accusation’
Bhatti said police told him that they would remove his name from the First Information Report but could not immediately release him due to the threat to his life. After the blasphemy allegations surfaced, announcements on mosque loudspeakers had incited more than 500 Muslims to protest, causing many area Christians to flee their homes.
“I can’t thank God enough for rescuing me from this dangerous accusation,” Bhatti said. “Those who sought to implicate me in the fake case were instead booked under the same charges. This is how God works when you put your faith in Him fully.”
Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian, as it was the previous year.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written and published by Morning Star News.
