Home Latest News Aasia Bibi Leaves Jail

Aasia Bibi Leaves Jail

by AFP

Police guard the Multan prison where Aasia Bibi was incarcerated. SS Mirza—AFP

Blasphemy acquitted Christian woman remains in Pakistan, according to a foreign ministry spokesman

A Christian woman who spent eight years on death row for blasphemy has been freed from jail after an acquittal that triggered Islamist protests, but is still in Pakistan, officials said on Thursday amid appeals for her to be offered asylum.

Aasia Bibi’s conviction was overturned by the country’s highest court last Wednesday, but she remained in prison as the government negotiated with hardliners who blockaded major cities and demanded her immediate execution.

Islamist parties had already vowed to take to the streets of Karachi later Thursday to protest her acquittal and numbers were now expected to swell sharply following news of her release.

“She has been freed,” lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook said in a text message to AFP. “I have been told that she is on a plane but nobody knows where she will land.”

Following protests at last week’s ruling, the government agreed in a deal with Islamists to impose a travel ban on Bibi, and not to challenge an appeal in the Supreme Court. Foreign ministry spokesman Muhammad Faisal on Thursday denied media reports that she had left the country, telling AFP: “She is in Pakistan.” Intelligence sources also told AFP that she had not left the country.

An order for her release arrived on Wednesday at the jail in Multan where she was held, a prison official told AFP. “Aasia Bibi has left the prison and has been transferred to a safe place!” tweeted Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament.

Another civil aviation official, in Multan, said a small plane arrived in the city with “a few foreigners and some Pakistanis” on board to fetch Bibi.

Her case has underscored deep divisions between traditionalists and modernizers in the Muslim-majority country.

The conviction stemmed from a 2009 incident when Bibi was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. Muslim women laborers objected to her touching the water bowl as a non-Muslim, and a fight reportedly erupted. A local imam then claimed Bibi insulted Islam’s Prophet.

Bibi has consistently denied the charges, and her prosecution rallied international rights groups, politicians and religious figures. Pope Benedict XVI called for her release in 2010, while his successor, Pope Francis, met her daughter in 2015.

Bibi’s husband Ashiq Masih has appealed for Britain or the United States to grant the family asylum and several governments including those if Italy and France have offered to help. Her lawyer fled to the Netherlands on Saturday under threat to his life.

Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted: “I will do everything humanly possible to guarantee this young woman’s future.”

Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unsubstantiated allegations of insulting Islam can result in death at the hands of mobs.

Mere calls to reform the law have provoked violence, most notably the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, by his own bodyguard in Islamabad in 2011. Taseer had called for Bibi’s release, and his son Shahbaz tweeted “Pakistan Zindabad” following last week’s ruling.

Thousands of Islamist hardliners poured onto the streets in protest after the Supreme Court overturned Bibi’s conviction last Wednesday. Demonstrations broke out in major cities across the country in the wake of the ruling, with club-wielding protesters blocking Islamabad’s main highway and barricading roads in Karachi and Lahore.

One of the most vocal groups in the protests—the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan—called for “mutiny” against the Army’s top brass and the assassination of the top court’s justices.

In a statement, Labaik termed Bibi’s release “against the government agreement.”

“The entire atmosphere of Pakistan is in pain and grief after hearing the news about the blasphemer of the holy prophet Aasia,” it said.

One resident in Multan, Rizwan Khan, said that Bibi would not be safe wherever she went, while another, Qari Muneer, said the decision should be reversed and called for her to receive “strict punishment.”

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