Pakistan Court Confirms Death Sentence for Christian
His brother is released after nearly 12 years; days later a mob burns a Christian healer’s clinic in Punjab following a new blasphemy FIR.
On October 7, 2026, Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected the appeal of Qaiser Ayub, a Christian and father of three, and upheld his death sentence for blasphemy under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code. The same bench acquitted his younger brother, Amoon Ayub, for insufficient evidence, ending almost twelve years in prison for him. The full decision has only recently been made public.
The case dates to 2011, when authorities alleged that blasphemous material had appeared on a website linked to Qaiser’s name. The brothers were arrested in 2014, sentenced to death by a trial court in December 2018, and had their convictions confirmed by the Lahore High Court in June 2022. Qaiser has long maintained that he shut the site down in 2009 and that someone else later reactivated it while leaving his name in the copyright notice. Human rights advocates have questioned how the electronic evidence was authenticated.
The UK-based Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, which supported the brothers, voiced deep concern and urged every remaining legal avenue—including a review petition before the Supreme Court and a plea for presidential clemency.
Blasphemy Law and a Fragile Minority
Section 295-C entered the Penal Code in 1986 under General Zia-ul-Haq. After a 1990 Federal Shariat Court ruling, death is the only penalty the provision allows. The Pakistani state has never carried out an execution for blasphemy. Asia Bibi, acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2018 after eight years under a death sentence, later had to leave the country because of sustained threats—an outcome that remains a stark warning for Christians and other religious minorities.
Two days after the Supreme Court ruling on the Ayub brothers, police in Narang Mandi, Sheikhupura district, Punjab, registered a First Information Report at Narang Police Station against Christian Kamran Gill Masih. Local resident Raees Ahmed accused him of uploading a video offensive to the Prophet Muhammad. Police arrested Masih. A crowd then set fire to the clinic where he practiced traditional medicine, a structure attached to his home. Christian families in the area fled their houses out of fear.
Human Rights Focus Pakistan, which sent a fact-finding team, condemned the violence. Its president, Naveed Walter, stated that "no allegation can justify mob violence, arson, intimidation, or collective punishment," and called on the government, police, and local administration to protect Masih, his relatives, and the Christian community. He insisted that only the courts can determine guilt and that Masih is entitled to a lawyer and a fair, impartial trial.
For Pakistan’s small Christian community, the twin episodes—judicial confirmation of a capital blasphemy sentence and immediate street violence against another accused believer—underscore the double exposure of accusation and mob justice. The Church continues to call for the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, and the protection of the faithful who live under threat for their baptism.