There's been a new twist in the case against a mentally impaired girl in Pakistan who's been charged under the country's controversial anti-blasphemy laws.

The 14 year old Christian girl was arrested last month and accused of burning pages of the Qu'ran. But now a Muslim cleric has been accused of tampering with evidence in the case and has been arrested

Lindy Kerin Source: The World Today |
Duration: 3min 53sec Topics: information-and-communication, pakistan
Transcript
ELEANOR HALL: Now to a new twist in the case against a mentally impaired girl in Pakistan who's been charged under the country's controversial anti-blasphemy laws. The 14-year-old Christian girl was arrested last month and accused of burning pages of the Koran. But now a Muslim cleric has been accused of planting the incriminating pages of the holy book in the young girl's bag. Lindy Kerin has the latest. LINDY KERIN: Human rights groups around the globe were outraged last month when 14-year-old Rimsha Masih was picked up by police and charged with desecrating the Islamic holy book. She was allegedly found with burnt pages of the Koran in a shopping bag. But over the weekend a Muslim cleric was arrested for his alleged involvement in the case. Imam Khalid Chishti has been accused of tampering with evidence to strengthen the case against the young girl. At his mosque, the imam's supporters said he was innocent.

SUPPORTER (translation): The allegations against the imam are completely false. I was in the mosque with the imam at the time and I did not see him add any pages of the Koran to the girl's bag.

SUPPORTER 2 (translation): The imam of this mosque is totally innocent, he is a pure Muslim. After the girl burnt the pages, the people who saw came to him to let him know because he was in the mosque at the time. He could not have planted the evidence.

LINDY KERIN: The imam led the charge against the young girl and was key in taking the matter to the police. But a member of his mosque has now told police that they saw the Muslim cleric put pages of the holy book among burnt pages allegedly carried by the girl. They also claim that the Khalid Chisti said, quote, "This was how to get Christians out of the area."

Supporters of the 14-year-old girl have welcomed the arrest and are they're hoping to see Rimsha Masih released from custody. Catholic priest, Father Rahmat Michael, says he's deeply concerned about the trauma she's suffered.

RAHMAT MICHAEL: It is very, very sad, very depressing situation that suddenly your people are accused and you being the shepherd of the sheep, you know, sometimes you feel, I feel helpless.

LINDY KERIN: The girl's lawyer says the imam's arrest proves his client is innocent. He says he will likely move to throw the case out. Since she was arrested, the young girl has been in held in a high security prison. Pakistan's minister for national harmony, Paul Bhatti, told the BBC it was for her own safety.

PAUL BHATTI: It is very, very difficult to control the mobs and the people when they hear such kind of things and police informed me if they were not taking the girl that people were ready to kill her there in the public and even now, people will kill her if she comes out. For the moment we want to keep her in a safe place.

LINDY KERIN: Beena Sarwar is a Pakistani journalist and has campaigned for the repeal of the blasphemy laws. She says she's not that surprised the case has taken such a turn.

BEENA SARWAR: I would say that this is not that extraordinary a twist because every single case of blasphemy that we've seen so far has had mala fide motives behind it, false accusations, and reasons like economic rivalry, trying to evict somebody from property, trying to evade debt. So but this is just one case in which somebody who falsified the evidence, an eyewitness came out and spoke against him and I just, and I would also wonder what the motivation of that eyewitness were.

LINDY KERIN: Human Rights Watch in Pakistan says the decision to act against the cleric was unprecedented and indicates a genuine attempt to investigate the case. The organisation has described it is a welcome and positive development. The group has long been lobbying to overturn the harsh anti-blasphemy laws in Pakistan, which would see those convicted face the death penalty.
ELEANOR HALL: Lindy Kerin with our report.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-03/muslim-cleric-in-pakistan-arrested-over-blasphemy/4240308

@Mod,

I understand you might have thought this is for Islam but its not its more religion and politics, hence i put it under general. I don't think you read or are following the case however, i would suggest to put it under Religion rather than Islam site. I am not trying to rub anyone's nose on this.

Please for peace sake!

Continue here.

https://www.nairaland.com/1036604/imam-burn-quran-accuse-chritsina