Zardari seeks report on arrest of Christian girl in blasphemy case
Source: Agencies |
August 21, 2012, Tuesday
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PAKISTAN'S president yesterday called on officials to explain the arrest on blasphemy charges of a Christian girl with Down's Syndrome who allegedly burnt pages inscribed with verses from the Quran.
There is a growing debate about religious intolerance in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where strict anti-blasphemy laws make defaming Islam or desecrating the Quran punishable by death.
The girl, Rimsha, was arrested in a low-income neighborhood of the capital Islamabad on Thursday and remanded to custody for 14 days after furious Muslims demanded she be punished, police said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, police said the girl was 16 years old. Activists and neighbors insist she is between 10 and 13 years old.
President Asif Ali Zardari took "serious note" of her arrest and called on the interior ministry to submit a report on the case, state media said.
Some reports suggested the girl had been burning papers collected from a rubbish pile for cooking when someone entered her house and accused the family of burning pages inscribed with verses from the Quran.
Muslim anger over the alleged incident forced Christians to flee the mixed neighborhood of Mehrabad, 20 minutes' drive from Western embassies.
Police investigator Zabhiullah Abbasi said Rimsha had been remanded until August 25, when she will be charged in court with blasphemy in Adiyala jail.
Abbasi said Rimsha was illiterate but denied she had Down's Syndrome. "The girl is 16-year-old as per the medical report and she is normal," he said.
A police official, Qasim Niazi, said when the girl was brought to the police station she had a shopping bag that contained various religious and Arabic-language papers that had been partly burned but no Quran.
Another police officer said the matter would likely be dropped once the investigation is completed and the atmosphere is defused, saying there was "nothing much to the case."
Rimsha's house was locked yesterday, with no one home.
Hammad Malik, 22, who lives next door, said that he saw the girl burning pages with Quranic verses on them. "I was sitting outside my house and a few minutes before iftar (the meal that breaks the Ramadan fast) I saw her burning some booklets on the rubbish heap. I noticed there were some pages on which Quranic verses were printed."
He described Rimsha as "12-13 years old" and "almost normal as she does all her household chores".
But an official of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, said the girl had Down's Syndrome - a condition that causes various degrees of learning difficulties.
The Women's Action Forum, a leading Pakistani organization fighting for women's rights, condemned Rimsha's arrest.
There is a growing debate about religious intolerance in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where strict anti-blasphemy laws make defaming Islam or desecrating the Quran punishable by death.
The girl, Rimsha, was arrested in a low-income neighborhood of the capital Islamabad on Thursday and remanded to custody for 14 days after furious Muslims demanded she be punished, police said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, police said the girl was 16 years old. Activists and neighbors insist she is between 10 and 13 years old.
President Asif Ali Zardari took "serious note" of her arrest and called on the interior ministry to submit a report on the case, state media said.
Some reports suggested the girl had been burning papers collected from a rubbish pile for cooking when someone entered her house and accused the family of burning pages inscribed with verses from the Quran.
Muslim anger over the alleged incident forced Christians to flee the mixed neighborhood of Mehrabad, 20 minutes' drive from Western embassies.
Police investigator Zabhiullah Abbasi said Rimsha had been remanded until August 25, when she will be charged in court with blasphemy in Adiyala jail.
Abbasi said Rimsha was illiterate but denied she had Down's Syndrome. "The girl is 16-year-old as per the medical report and she is normal," he said.
A police official, Qasim Niazi, said when the girl was brought to the police station she had a shopping bag that contained various religious and Arabic-language papers that had been partly burned but no Quran.
Another police officer said the matter would likely be dropped once the investigation is completed and the atmosphere is defused, saying there was "nothing much to the case."
Rimsha's house was locked yesterday, with no one home.
Hammad Malik, 22, who lives next door, said that he saw the girl burning pages with Quranic verses on them. "I was sitting outside my house and a few minutes before iftar (the meal that breaks the Ramadan fast) I saw her burning some booklets on the rubbish heap. I noticed there were some pages on which Quranic verses were printed."
He described Rimsha as "12-13 years old" and "almost normal as she does all her household chores".
But an official of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, said the girl had Down's Syndrome - a condition that causes various degrees of learning difficulties.
The Women's Action Forum, a leading Pakistani organization fighting for women's rights, condemned Rimsha's arrest.
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