Daily Times

RAWALPINDI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday handed 86 workers and supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), including party chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s brother Ameer Hussain Rizvi and nephew Mohammad Ali, with a prison sentence of 55 years each in a case pertaining to rioting and resisting against the police.

Those convicted include TLP chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s brother Ameer Hussain Rizvi and nephew Mohammad Ali. Additionally, the court ordered the convicts to collectively submit Rs12,925,000 and directed authorities to seize their moveable and immoveable assets.

Bibi’s conviction was overturned by Pakistan’s highest court on October 31, 2018. However, she had to be kept in protective custody despite orders of her immediate release due to the threats to her life posed by far-right parties, which had reacted strongly to the Supreme Court’s judgement.

In November 2019, an ATC indicted Rizvi, party’s patron-in-chief Peer Afzal Qadri and others in a case registered after the party’s agitation and protests in the wake of Oct 2018 acquittal of blasphemy accused Aasia Bibi.

‎Rizvi and several senior figures were detained after they shut down major cities in protest at the acquittal of a Christian woman who had spent eight years on death row on blasphemy charges.