Pakistan inquiry finds doctor accused of blasphemy was killed in fake police shootout

Islamabad: An inquiry found that a doctor accused of blasphemy was killed in a fake police shootout last week in Pakistan after violent protests by Islamists, a government minister said on Thursday, ordering criminal proceedings against the officers involved.

It was the second such killing in police custody in a week.

Shah Nawaz, a doctor working in the town of Umerkot in southern Pakistan, went into hiding after local clerics accused him of blasphemy over a Facebook post, which he said in a video statement was posted on one of his old accounts that had been hacked long ago, according to his family.

The clerics then led violent protests in the area, attacking police stations and burning police vehicles.

His family said Nawaz had surrendered to police after receiving assurances from investigators that he would have a chance to prove his innocence. Instead, they said, he was killed in a shootout.

"An inquiry has found that it was a fake shootout," southern Sindh province home minister Zia Lanjar told a news conference. "It was a custodial death," he said, reading from what he said was a 31-page inquiry report.

The accused officers include a deputy inspector general of police, two other senior officers and their subordinates, Lanjar said.

Local clerics and some politicians feted the accused officers, garlanding and showering them with rose petals at red-carpet events, according to human rights groups and pictures and videos posted on social media.

Reuters has not been able to independently confirm these reports or the authenticity of the social media posts, but Lanjar said his government was against all forms of extremism.

Thousands of human rights activists have rallied against the killing in Umerkot, demanding justice and chanting slogans against Islamist extremism.

Blasphemy is punishable by death in predominantly Muslim Pakistan. No one has been executed by the state for the crime, but the issue is so sensitive that dozens of people accused of blasphemy have been lynched by mobs before a trial could begin.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom says the South Asian country is one of the world's strictest and most frequent enforcers of blasphemy laws.