
In January, Kumara's employer announced it would pay his salary, approximately $1,700 per month, to his widow for the next 10 years, while the Sialkot business community separately donated and transferred $100,000 to her account.īlasphemy is a highly sensitive matter in majority-Muslim Pakistan and carries the death penalty under local laws, although no one convicted of the crime has been executed to date as lower court convictions are often overturned by the higher judiciary.Ĭritics have long called for reforming the laws, saying they are abused by influential members of society and religious fanatics to intimidate the country's religious minorities and pressure opponents into settling personal feuds. Mob lynchings of alleged blasphemers are common in Pakistan, but the assault on the Sri Lankan national was the first such incident involving a foreigner.
#Blasphemous donation trial
The foreigner's brutal murder had drawn nationwide outrage and condemnation, with demands that the perpetrators be publicly hanged, prompting Pakistani authorities to swiftly arrest dozens of suspects and put them on trial.ĭefense lawyer Israr Ullah said the special court had conducted the trial inside a prison in the provincial capital, Lahore, for security reasons before announcing the verdict Monday. However, investigators later concluded that the accusations were baseless and Kumara was murdered merely for instructing workers to abide by factory regulations. The slain man was accused of desecrating and removing posters bearing the name of the Prophet Muhammad from factory walls before informing others about the allegedly blasphemous act. A crystal sphere imprisoning a ruby heart. The strange energy fills the wearer with determination, electrifying the very air around him after drinking a Bile Flask. The incident took place in the industrial Sialkot district in Punjab province, where Kumara had worked as an export quality control manager at a sporting goods factory for 10 years before being tortured and burned by hundreds of coworkers as well as local activists of a radical Islamist group. The gem sparkles with lightning from other lands, filling the glass with a stormy light. Another person received five years' imprisonment for his role in the fatal mob assault on Priyantha Kumara in December. The court announced the verdict Monday, sentencing 72 additional suspects to "rigorous" jail terms of two years each. This gives the game a very rigid playstyle, and while the player may not necessarily need other tools to deal with enemies, it would be much more interesting if there was more experimentation involved.An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced six men to death and nine others to life in prison for lynching a Sri Lankan factory manager, who they accused of insulting Islam. There are no other weapons to acquire, and you'll probably only come across four or five different spells in a single playthrough. The real problem is the lack of depth: The Penitent One only has a handful of moves that are upgraded individually throughout the entire game, and customization is very limited. There are some needless annoyances, like an absurdly long healing animation and touch damage in close-range melee combat, but fighting is still brutal fun once you've got a grip on it. Nigerian Christians are often assaulted and murdered, with their churches and business being looted and destroyed due to claims of blasphemy. Don't get me wrong - combat is certainly functional in its own right, it's just not fast or responsive in the way Dead Cells or Hollow Knight are, for example. Nigeria (International Christian Concern) Blasphemy killings are becoming all too common in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria, and the world is starting to take notice.

Some might say that this is to be expected in a game so similar to Dark Souls, but Blasphemous deliberately bills itself as a "fast-paced hack-and-slash game." Unfortunately, it isn't.

However, all those frames of animation cause a different issue for the game: sluggish movement and combat. Even after putting everything together, all of the events of this world are simply at the mercy of The Miracle, which the game itself says is "incomprehensible." The pervasive use of Judeo-Christian imagery doesn't actually tie into any real-world religious themes, either - it's just there to make things look cool. The verbose item descriptions and lore dumps from other characters come off like a handful of short stories, all of which have the same themes of religious dogma and human suffering. Unlike Dark Souls, however, the majority of these tidbits feel like flavor text on a Magic card rather than integral pieces woven into an overarching story. As The Penitent One jumps, climbs and fights through the forsaken regions of Custodia, he'll pick up various items that include breadcrumbs of lore (in true Dark Souls fashion). It's definitely an intriguing premise, but tragically, it doesn't end up amounting to much from a narrative standpoint. Related: Children of Morta Review: A Beautiful But Tedious Action Roguelike
