Islamabad: A Pakistani court dismissed on Tuesday a blasphemy case against a Christian girl which had drawn international condemnation and concern about the rights of religious minorities in the predominantly Muslim country. Rimsha Masih, believed to be no older than 14, was charged with burning pages of the Quran in August but was granted bail in September after a cleric was detained on suspicion of planting evidence to stir up resentment against Christians.
Masih's lawyer, Tahir Naveed, said the Islamabad High Court's decision to throw out the case was based on the fact that no one had seen her burning pages of the Quran. The case provoked international concern and she could, in theory, have faced execution under Pakistan's blasphemy law despite her age and reported mental problems.
Muslims consider the Quran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy. The blasphemy law enjoys widespread support among ordinary Pakistanis even though critics say it is often abused by people involved in disputes or against members of religious minorities.
Over the past two years, two senior government officials who had suggested reform of the law were shot dead, one by his own bodyguard. Lawyers threw rose petals at the killer and the judge who convicted him was forced to flee the country. The number of blasphemy cases brought under the law is rising. Since 1987, there have been almost 250 cases, according to the
01:29 PM, Nov 20, 2012
Islamabad: A Pakistani cleric who falsely accused a minor Christian girl of blasphemy by framing evidence against her was freed from jail today after he was granted bail by a court in the federal capital. Khalid Chishti was detained on September 1 on a charge of blasphemy for desecrating the Quran and planting evidence that was used against the girl Rimsha Masih. He was arrested after his deputy Maulvi Zubair...
02:19 AM, Oct 13, 2012
Islamabad: The three men who had accused a cleric of tampering evidence to implicate young Christian girl Rimsha Masih in a blasphemy case on Monday withdrew their statement, claiming they were tortured by police to testify against the imam. The three witnesses, who had earlier recorded statements against cleric Khalid Chishti, submitted a fresh statement in the court of a district and sessions judge in Islamabad that said police had...
04:00 PM, Oct 01, 2012
A 14-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan who was charged with blasphemy is expected to be declared innocent by a juvenile court on Monday. Police say that Rimsha Masih was not only innocent but that she was framed by a Muslim cleric in her home town. Masih reportedly suffers from Down Syndrome. The cleric said that he saw her tearing down the Quran's pages. ...
10:01 AM, Oct 01, 2012
Islamabad: A Pakistani court on Monday ordered the police to transfer the case of young Christian girl Rimsha Masih, accused of blasphemy, to a juvenile court as an official medical board had concluded that her age is 14 years. District and Sessions Judge Jawad Abbas Hassan directed police to submit a separate challan or chargesheet against Rimsha to the juvenile court. He said the court had received the medical board's...
03:39 AM, Sep 25, 2012
Rimsha Masih is a minor Christian girl from a poor Islamabad suburb who was accused more than two weeks back by her neighbour and a local cleric of blasphemy. The cleric, Khalid Jadoon, accused the illiterate girl of carrying a bag of garbage which allegedly also contained some torn and burnt pages from the Holy Quran. Rimsha spent more than a fortnight in jail before being released on bail on...
03:00 PM, Sep 07, 2012
New Delhi: The Pakistani Christian girl, who was arrested on charges of blasphemy, was on Friday released against a bond of Rs 5 lakh. Rimsha Masih, a patient of Down's Syndrome, was accused by the cleric of a mosque in Islamabad of tearing the pages of the Quran. The court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge, where a two-and-a-half-hour-long hearing on Friday morning was marked by noisy arguments between...
01:41 PM, Sep 07, 2012
Islamabad: In a new twist to the blasphemy case involving a minor Christian girl, an imam in the Pakistani capital was arrested and remanded to 14-day judicial custody on Sunday for allegedly planting pages of the Quran in her bag and using it to implicate her under the controversial law. Khalid Chishti, the prayer leader of Jamia Aminia mosque in the low-income Mehria Jaffar neighbourhood of Islamabad, was arrested on...
07:38 PM, Sep 02, 2012
