Blasphemous text messages land Pakistani in jail

KARACHI, May 26 (Reuters) A Pakistani Christian man upset by attacks on churches in the country has been arrested for sending blasphemous text messages to Muslims from his mobile phone, a senior police official said today.

Police arrested Qamar David, a hospital canteen worker, in the southern city Karachi yesterday following a complaint by a travel agent, who received offending messages on his cell phone.

''He was sending blasphemous messages to Muslims and was causing panic,'' Karachi police chief Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui told Reuters. ''He says he did this as he was upset with attacks on churches in the country.'' Police have taken him into judicial remand for committing blasphemy, a crime which can carry the death penalty.

Although no one has ever been executed for blasphemy, human rights groups criticise the law, as any person accused can be arrested before an investigation takes place.

Police confirmed the messages were sent from David's telephone before arresting him, police officer Imran Minhas said.

David confessed to sending insulting messages about Islam and Prophet Mohammed, the officer said, while refusing to disclose the content.

Caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad first published in a Danish newspaper and subsequently reprinted by newspapers in other countries to assert the right of free speech caused an outcry in the Islamic world earlier this year, as Muslims regard images of Prophet as sacriligious.

Protests in Pakistan were among the most violent.

REUTERS SHR RAI2009