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Pakistani Man Sentenced To Death For Blasphemy


A Pakistani court has sentenced a man to death for blasphemy.

Police identified the man as Hazrat Ali Shah, who was reported as being in his mid-20s.

He was convicted on November 15 after a trial in the remote northwestern district of Chitral.

Amir Khan, a local police official, says Shah was arrested in March 2011 for profanity against the Prophet Mohammad.

It is the first death sentence in a blasphemy case after a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, was given a death sentence in 2010.

She has not been executed yet.

Her case brought international criticism of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which were introduced in the 1980s by former military dictator Zaiul Haq.

Based on reporting by dpa and AFP

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