A Pakistani YouTube star has been charged with blasphemy after launching a perfume named after the very law he has fallen foul of, Pakistani police said on Tuesday.
Rajab Butt has one of the largest online followings in the Muslim-majority country and has been embroiled in controversy for years, including over his brief custody of a lion cub.
In a recent video, since deleted from his social media accounts, Butt launched his “295” perfume, which refers to blasphemy legislation in the penal code.
Photo: EPA
He said it followed a case filed against him last year, over an earlier video deemed blasphemous by Islamic experts.
His perfume publicity sparked further ire, prompting the leader of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) to file a complaint late on Monday.
‘SENTIMENTS HURT’
“Our religious sentiments have been hurt,” TLP leader Haider Ali Shah Gillani said.
“There are numerous sections in the penal code, but why did he choose blasphemy-related sections to name a perfume?” Gillani added.
“This means you acknowledge the offense and are celebrating it. This is essentially an attempt to normalize such actions,” Gillani said.
A police charge sheet authenticated by a police official on Tuesday details the accusations against Butt, including for alleged blasphemy and cybercrimes.
DECADE SENTENCE?
In both cases against him, the social media personality risks up to 10 years in prison.
Butt on Sunday issued an apology video, saying that he is not against the country’s blasphemy laws.
“I apologize for the words I uttered during the launch of the perfume,” he said while holding a Koran. “I apologize and announce the discontinuation of this perfume.”
Butt has previously drawn a parallel with his “mentor,” slain Indian rapper Sidhu Moose Wala, who released a song titled 295 in reference to religious incitement.
In other legal troubles, Butt in January pleaded guilty to owning an undocumented wild animal after accepting a lion cub as a wedding gift.
He avoided jail by promising a judge to post animal rights videos for a year.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and