ISLAMABAD:
Pakistani authorities have arrested a Muslim cleric on suspicion of
framing a Christian girl arrested under the country’s controversial
antiblasphemy law, a police official said on Sunday.
The girl, Rimsha Masih, has been in prison for more than two weeks, accused of burning papers containing verses from the Quran.
Khalid Chishti, the prayer leader of Jamia Aminia mosque in the low-income Mehria Jaffar neighbourhood of Islamabad, was arrested on Saturday night.
“Witnesses complained that he had torn pages from a Quran and placed them in her bag which had burned papers,” police official Munir Hussain Jafri said.
The girl, Rimsha Masih, has been in prison for more than two weeks, accused of burning papers containing verses from the Quran.
Khalid Chishti, the prayer leader of Jamia Aminia mosque in the low-income Mehria Jaffar neighbourhood of Islamabad, was arrested on Saturday night.
“Witnesses complained that he had torn pages from a Quran and placed them in her bag which had burned papers,” police official Munir Hussain Jafri said.
The cleric was on Sunday sent to jail for a 14-day judicial remand. He will be held at the same prison as Masih.
A bail hearing will be held on Monday for Masih, whose case has re-focused a spotlight on Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law. Under the law, anyone who speaks ill of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad commits a crime and faces the death penalty.
A witness, Hafiz Muhammad Zubair, told the media, “When the bag was brought to the mosque, there was nothing in it. When he [Chishti] was given the bag, he went into the mosque and pulled out two or three pages and added them to the bag.”
"I told him what he was doing was wrong. He told me it is evidence against the Christians and a way to get them removed [from the area],” he added.
A bail hearing will be held on Monday for Masih, whose case has re-focused a spotlight on Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law. Under the law, anyone who speaks ill of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad commits a crime and faces the death penalty.
A witness, Hafiz Muhammad Zubair, told the media, “When the bag was brought to the mosque, there was nothing in it. When he [Chishti] was given the bag, he went into the mosque and pulled out two or three pages and added them to the bag.”
"I told him what he was doing was wrong. He told me it is evidence against the Christians and a way to get them removed [from the area],” he added.
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