The title of the Reddit post captured my attention, "Satan ‘captured’ in Pakistani museum after judges take notice." I needed to know more, I was lead to an article posted Daily Pakistan Global with the same title as the post. I wanted to know every detail of this story so I put my detective Pikachu hat and went about an investigation.

The capture of 'Satan'

On January 11, the University of Punjab made a post on their Facebook page with two women standing next to a statue with a Satan-sort of look outside the Lahore Museum. The 20-foot tall piece was designed by Irbaatul Hassan, a Punjab University College of Arts and Design student to be the very first outdoor exhibit at the Lahore Museum.

On January 18, Pakistan Today posted an article that Lahore High Court stated that the Punjab Chief Secretary and the Lahore Museum Director had to reply to a petition filed by Ambreen Qureshi that called for them to remove a "sculpture of Satan” from outside the Lahore Museum. According to Pakistan Today, the judge apparently stated: "to control Satan is the responsibility of us all.”

After this quote, Pakistan Today went onto the write, "observed the judge who was thankful that at least someone came out against the devil." Apparently, the statue also scared school children that were visiting the Lahore Museum according to Ambreen Qureshi.

Ambreen Qureshi also stated that “this sculpture has nothing to do with our culture whereas the purpose of a museum is to preserve our history and culture."

Response to the 'Satan' statue

Unsurprisingly by January 19, the statue had been covered by order of the Lahore High Court, although I have no evidence to prove this the statue has probably been removed at this point and time.

Aside from a sensational headline from Daily Pakistan, there is no evidence of the statue being 'captured.' In fact, the article itself made no mention of anything being 'captured' -- let alone the Satanish statue.

Designer Irbaatul Hassan originally built the statue as a "strong comment on the degradation of humans who stop self-reflecting and become immoral." Hassan has put out several responses due to this incident including, "the difference between a man and an animal is based on a man’s ability to self-reflect."

Hassan also stated “Who can claim the devil looks like this? Has anyone ever seen Satan?” No matter how you look at this silly scenario this is clearly not the response the Lahore Museum wanted for their very first outdoor exhibit.