https://www.voanews.com/a/pakistan-...-placing-bounty-on-chief-justice/7717410.html
Police in central Pakistan on Monday arrested a leader of a far-right Islamist party on charges of ordering the assassination of the country’s top judge over his alleged support for minority Ahmadis.
Zaheerul Hassan Shah, deputy chief of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, or TLP, was taken into custody under the anti-terrorism law in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, according to an official police complaint.
The arrest came a day after Shah was seen in a viral video on social media announcing to a crowd of TLP supporters that he would personally give 10 million rupees ($36,000) to anyone who beheads Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Esa.
The radical leader delivered the speech in the provincial capital of Lahore, accusing the 65-year-old top judge of “desecrating the law of the country.”
The rally was one of a series of public gatherings organized by TLP in recent days in parts of Pakistan to condemn Esa for granting bail to a member of the minority Ahmadi community, who was accused of posting material against Islam on social media.
Hours before Shah’s arrest, the federal defense minister told reporters in the national capital, Islamabad, that the government would sternly deal with those making false allegations against the chief justice and issuing death threats in the name of the Islamic religion.
“No group can incite violence in the name of faith or politics. We will use the full force of the law to bring them to justice,” Khawaja Asif said. “The state will not allow you to issue a fatwa [decree] to kill someone,” he added….
