Pak Ahmadi doctor arrested for 'posing as a Muslim'

A doctor from Pakistan's minority Ahmadi community has been arrested for allegedly "posing as a Muslim" under the country's draconian blasphemy law after a complaint by his patients.

An additional district and sessions judge in Lahore on Monday dismissed the bail petition of 72-year-old British-Pakistani Dr Masood Ahmed following his arrest. He was arrested last month for allegedly preaching Ahmadi beliefs and distributing books containing derogatory remarks.

The spokesperson of Jama'at Ahmadiyya Pakistan said the doctor was arrested "when two men posing as patients tricked him and used mobiles to secretly record him reading the Koran".

The doctor had returned to Pakistan from the United Kingdom to open a pharmacy in 1982. Advocate Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, counsel for the complainant, said Dr Ahmed had been nominated in a first information report with a specific role and the complainant had audio and video evidence to back his allegations.

Chaudhry said Dr Ahmed had preached Ahmadi beliefs to a patient and given him books containing blasphemous material.