While conversing on WhatsApp, Aroosa Khan’s kid unexpectedly became the focus of “vigilante” detectives who charged him with online blasphemy, a crime for which the death sentence is applicable in Pakistan.
The 27-year-old is among the hundreds of young men on trial in Pakistani courts who are charged with spreading hate speech on the internet or in WhatsApp groups—a crime for which the number of arrests has skyrocketed in recent years.
Rights groups and police allege that a large number of the cases are being tried by private “vigilante groups,” which are headed by attorneys and assisted by volunteers who search the internet for offenders.
Families of young Pakistanis working in the fields of medicine, engineering, law, and accounting claim that their loved ones were tricked into publishing offensive material online by strangers before being taken into custody.
