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PAKISTAN-RELIGION-POLITICS,LEAD
Woman at centre of Pakistani blasphemy row leaves jail
ISLAMABAD, Nov 8, 2018 (AFP) – A Pakistani 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
Thursday amid appeals for her to be offered asylum.
Asia 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 Wednesday at the jail in the central city
of Multan where she was held, a prison official told AFP.
“Asia 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
modernisers in the devoutly Muslim country.
The conviction stemmed from a 2009 incident when Bibi was asked to fetch
water while out working in the fields.
Muslim women labourers objected to her touching the water bowl as a non-
Muslim, and a fight reportedly erupted.
A local imam then claimed Bibi insulted the Prophet Mohammed.
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.
– Incendiary charge –
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 Pakistan’s Punjab province,
by his own bodyguard in Islamabad in 2011.
Taseer had called for Bibi’s release, and his son Shahbaz tweeted “Pakistan
Zindabad” (“Long live Pakistan”) following last week’s ruling.
Thousands of Islamist hardliners poured onto the streets in protest after
Supreme Court judges 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 (TLP) — called for “mutiny” against the army’s top brass and the
assassination of the top court’s justices.
In a statement, the TLP 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 Asia,” it said.
One resident in Multan, Rizwan Khan, told AFP 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”.
BSS/AFP/MRI/1202 hrs