Pakistani woman hanged for insulting Islam via WhatsApp

A Muslim woman has been sentenced to death in Pakistan after she was convicted of sending a text message and a cartoon that "defamed the name of the Prophet Muhammad" via WhatsApp.

Anika Atiq, 26, was arrested in May 2020 and charged with publishing "blasphemous materials" on WhatsApp, according to a court summary.

The verdict was issued in the city of Rawalpindi, where the court ordered her "to be hanged by the neck until death", and she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, and laws banning it can carry the death penalty even though it has never been applied to the crime.

In December, a Sri Lankan factory manager working in Pakistan was beaten to death and set on fire by a group of people after being accused of blasphemy.

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