Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws have become a lethal tool for persecuting religious minorities. Enacted to punish “insults” to Islam with penalties up to death, these laws are increasingly misused to target Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, Shia Muslims, and even the remnants of Pakistan’s Buddhist heritage.
For instance, in January 2025, legal experts in Pakistan uncovered a blasphemy scam involving a criminal network that used WhatsApp and Facebook to entrap individuals—mainly Christians—by sending blasphemous content and later filing false charges. Over 450 people were falsely accused, with dozens reportedly dying in custody due to torture or the inability to pay extortion demands. The group operated with the support of some officials in the Federal Investigation Agency’s cybercrime wing. Human rights bodies linked the racket to extremist groups like Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The scandal revealed the systematic, state-backed weaponization of blasphemy laws for profit and persecution in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s blasphemy provisions are inherently discriminatory and prone to abuse. Over the past few decades, dozens of accused individuals—many from marginalized religious minorities—have been lynched by outraged Islamist mobs or killed by zealots, even though the Pakistani state has never officially executed anyone for blasphemy. Human rights monitors report that since 1987, more than 2,000 people have been accused under these laws, and at least 88 have been murdered before their cases could be resolved.
Christians in Pakistan have been disproportionately affected by blasphemy hysteria. Though Christians comprise only about 1.8% of the population, roughly one-quarter of all blasphemy accusations in recent years have targeted Christian individuals. In August 2023, for instance, a mob of hundreds armed with sticks and batons attacked a Christian neighborhood in Jaranwala, Punjab, after a rumor that a local Christian had desecrated the Quran. The rioters torched several churches and hundreds of homes, forcing thousands of Christians to flee for their lives.
In April 2025, a Jaranwala Christian man accused in the alleged Quran desecration case was handed a death sentence by an anti-terrorism court, illustrating how the legal system itself can be mobilized to legitimize persecution in Pakistan. In May 2024, a Christian man, Nazir Gill Masih, was lynched by a mob in Sargodha, Punjab, on allegations of desecrating the Holy Quran. A month later, a tourist was dragged from a police station in the Swat district and killed by a mob after being accused of blasphemy. Simply put, Pakistani Christians live under the constant threat that any personal dispute, religious prejudice, or rumor could spiral into a blasphemy allegation and mob violence.
Other minority faiths have likewise suffered. The Buddhist legacy in Pakistan has also become collateral damage in this extremist frenzy. While Pakistan today has only a minuscule Buddhist population—fewer than 1,900 individuals—the land was once a cradle of Buddhist civilization (the ancient Gandhara kingdom). Monuments like Takht-i-Bahi, Bhamala Stupa, and ancient carvings in Swat have been vandalized and looted by Islamist mobs. Priceless Buddhist relics are endangered by infrastructure projects like the Diamer-Bhasha Dam, which threatens to submerge them. In July 2020, locals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan district discovered a 1,700-year-old Buddha statue during construction, only for a village cleric to declare it “un-Islamic” and incite its destruction. A video of the men smashing the life-size statue into pieces with sledgehammers went viral. Observers noted that such vandalism is part of a broader, systematic effort by hardliners to erase the region’s non-Islamic identity. The destroyed Buddha of Mardan underscores that not only are minorities living in danger, but even ancient monuments associated with “other” religions are unsafe in today’s Pakistan.
In December 2021, a Sri Lankan factory manager (a Buddhist by faith) was tortured and burned alive by his coworkers in Sialkot over a blasphemy allegation—merely because he removed an Islamic poster from a wall. This gruesome killing, filmed and shared online, sparked momentary outrage and official condemnations for bringing “shame” to Pakistan.
The federal government and military establishment in Pakistan have directly enabled this crisis through their inaction on blasphemy. Successive governments have not only failed to reform the notorious blasphemy statutes but, in some cases, have bolstered them. In January 2023, Pakistan’s National Assembly unanimously passed a bill to tighten blasphemy laws further, increasing the punishment for certain offenses from 3 years to 10 years to life in prison and making them non-bailable. Human rights groups warned that this would only embolden those who weaponize blasphemy to persecute minorities.
In 2020, only 11 blasphemy cases were recorded, and 9 in 2021; but in 2024, at least 475 cases were registered—an astronomical jump. An investigation by the National Commission on Human Rights found that certain networks, including members of the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party and even some officials, have orchestrated blasphemy accusations to entrap people and extort money. Using social media, these groups fabricated hundreds of blasphemy cases since 2021 in what has been dubbed the “blasphemy business.” Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment has a history of appeasing or covertly supporting certain Islamist groups for political ends. Authorities seldom hold perpetrators accountable: police often fail to intervene against lynch mobs, and those who incite or commit anti-minority violence are rarely prosecuted or convicted.
Given these developments, Pakistan’s religious minorities face an increasingly perilous future. The weaponization of blasphemy has already devastated countless lives, driving entire communities into exile, stripping people of property and livelihoods, and fraying the social fabric with fear and suspicion. Few officials dare even to criticize the blasphemy law after the killings of senior political representatives, local businessmen, and influential figures over blasphemy allegations. As a result, there is no meaningful check on the law’s abuse.
Pakistan appears to be hurtling toward an even more dangerous future for its vulnerable minorities. Without urgent change, Christians, Buddhists, and other minority communities will remain at the mercy of blasphemy-touting radicals—their lives, culture, and heritage persistently under siege by this state-sanctioned weapon of religious persecution.