Minister of Information, Fawad Chaudhry, custody. An eight-year-old Hindu boy was tweeted that the government had nothing to charged with blasphemy in August for do with the decision. urinating in a Madrassah library, where In September, the Pakistan Media religious texts were stored. Following the Development Authority Ordinance was charge, locals attacked and destroyed a proposed, which effectively enabled press Hindu temple in the same area. The child censorship by bringing all media under one was detained for a week before charges regulator, granting the government against him were dropped. Authorities unchecked powers to punish journalists restored the temple within a week. A video of through steep fines, special “media a man bullying a boy from the Hindu tribunals” and appointing government community went viral in July, which led to a officials to key positions. Petitions were filed swift intervention from President Alvi, leading in the Islamabad High Court against the to the arrest of the suspected perpetrator. draconian Removal and Blocking of Unlawful After several delays, the Lahore High Court Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and acquitted Christian couple Shagufta Kausar Safeguards) Rules – legislation which would and Shafqat Emmanuel in June. The couple censor online content. Consultations with civil had been on death row for seven years on society did not lead to meaningful changes false blasphemy charges. Their acquittal and the rules were enacted. Social media followed nationwide protests held by religious app TikTok was blocked by the Pakistan political group Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan Telecommunication Authority three times (TLP); a continuation of demonstrations that during the year after the High Courts of began in November 2020. Authorities Peshawar and Sindh imposed bans for arrested the TLP leader, Saad Rizvi, and the “vulgarity”. ensuing violence resulted in the deaths of FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF four police officers and hundreds injured, and led to the group being banned. On 18 Blasphemy cases continued to be registered April, the TLP took six police officers hostage against the beleaguered Ahmadi Muslim in Lahore to pressure the government into community in Pakistan, putting them at risk releasing Saad Rizvi. of danger or even the death penalty. At least There were continued reports of forced 10 places of worship for Ahmadi Muslims conversions to Islam of young Hindu and were desecrated – often by the police or with Christian girls. The Ministry of Human Rights their acquiescence. In January, the Pakistan drafted an Anti-Forced Conversion Bill, but Telecommunications Authority banned this was rejected by a parliamentary body in access to the US-based website October. trueislam.com, which documents the FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY activities of the Ahmadi community in the USA – part of a broader pattern of Protests were violently dispersed. In January, discrimination and state overreach, which students protesting in-person exams during has included issuing notices to Google and the Covid-19 pandemic were met with Wikipedia to remove “sacrilegious content”. excessive force and five of the leaders were There were sporadic reports of Ahmadi held incommunicado for five days. In March, graves being desecrated. In June, a group of Aurat March, the country’s largest women’s men prevented the burial of an Ahmadi movement, faced hostility and threats from woman in a local graveyard in the city of various actors, including private citizens, Sheikhupura. journalists, political parties and an armed In May, a crowd of people violently attacked group, who opposed Aurat March’s work a police station in the capital, Islamabad, in defending women’s rights. Following the an attempt to lynch a man accused of movement’s fourth annual International blasphemy, who was already in police Women’s Day march, videos of the event Amnesty International Report 2021/22 287