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ISLAMABAD – A Christian woman acquitted in Pakistan after eight years in prison on death row for blasphemy, her family said on Thursday. Authorities announced the arrest of two prisoners last month for conspiring to kill her.
Radical Islamists held rallies across the country for a second day after Pakistan's Supreme Court overturned a 2010 sentence against Asia Bibi for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The accusation of blasphemy carries the death penalty in this predominantly Muslim country.
The acquittal of Bibi was a challenge for the government of Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan, who came to power this summer in part by continuing the Islamist agenda. He asked the protesters not to "test the patience of the state".
On Thursday, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the government was avoiding the use of force against protesters to solve the problem peacefully.
Bibi remained in an undisclosed location on Thursday, where the 54-year-old mother, 54, was being held for security reasons pending her official release, her brother James Masih told The Associated. Press.
Masih said that his sister would simply not be safe in Pakistan.
"She has no other choice and she will leave the country soon," he said. Masih would not divulge the country of his destination, but France and Spain offered asylum.
Also on Thursday, prison officials said two detainees were arrested last month in an undisclosed detention center for planning to kill Bibi by strangling him. They said that men were always questioned.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media.
A female commando on a team of police and paramilitary troops deployed to protect Bibi told The Associated Press that Bibi was reading a Bible when news of his acquittal was transmitted to him.
Bibi was wearing a traditional green and orange Pakistani dress and a scarf when an AP reporter saw her at the school.
According to the female commando, who asked to remain unidentified because she was not allowed to speak to the media, Bibi learned that the judges gave her a new life and she was grateful to them.
Authorities said Bibi was in a safe home but was still afraid for her life and had trouble sleeping, fearing someone would hurt her.
Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, had returned from Britain with their children in mid-October and was waiting to join them, the brother said.
At the same time, more than 1,000 Islamists blocked Thursday a main road linking the capital Islamabad to the garrison town of Rawalpindi, demanding the public hanging of Bibi. The authorities deployed paramilitary troops, indicating that they could intervene to clean the roads.
Hundreds of people also blocked another key highway linking Islamabad to major cities such as Lahore and Peshawar, chanting slogans against Bibi and demanding execution.
On Thursday, lawyer Ghulam Mustafa filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking the judges to review the acquittal as the government began talks with the rally organizers to end their protests, had resulted in the fire of dozens of vehicles.
Opposition MPs in parliament on Thursday called for a reform of the judicial system and the controversial Pakistan blasphemy law, so that innocent people like Bibi do not spend years in prison.
Hafiz Saeed, a radical religious wanted by the United States, urged his supporters to hold rallies Friday across Pakistan to condemn the release of Bibi. Saeed is the founder of the illegal group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the Mumbai attacks in 2008, which killed 166 people.
Protesters, reunited by fire chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi, also set up roadblocks and set fire to tires in the southern port city of Karachi, as hundreds of people clashed Thursday in various parts of the country. the province of Punjab, east of the capital.
Many parents have prevented their children from going to school, fearing more violence.
The Islamists also called for the badbadination of the three judges, including the president of the court, Mian Saqib Nisar, who acquitted Bibi.
The three men are on the blacklist of Rizvi's Tehreek-e-Labbaik party, which has called for a public execution of Bibi. Rizvi has managed to gather tens of thousands of supporters in the past, often forcing the authorities to comply with his religious requirements.
Tehreek-e-Labbaik said Thursday that two of his supporters had been killed by police shootings during night clashes in Karachi. No government official could immediately confirm possible victims.
In his televised speech, Prime Minister Khan warned the Islamists: "Let me explain very clearly that the state will badume its responsibilities."
Bibi's lawyer, Saiful Malook, hid, the extremists also threatening him with death.
The leader Afzal Qadri, accompanied by Rizvi, on Wednesday called a crowd of supporters in front of the provincial parliament of Punjab, Lahore, to revolt against the chief of the army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and to overthrow the government. from Khan.
The acquittal of Bibi, however, was seen as an encouraging sign by Christians in Pakistan, where the mere rumor of blasphemy can trigger lynching. Religious minorities, who have been repeatedly targeted by extremists, fear the law because it is often used to settle scores and put pressure on minorities.
Bibi was arrested in 2009 after being accused of blasphemy following a feud with two other farm workers who refused to drink in a can of water used by a Christian. A few days later, a crowd accuses him of insulting the prophet of Islam, which led to his death sentence in 2010.
Bibi's family has always maintained her innocence and says she has never insulted the Prophet.
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