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From picking Phalsa berries into a field as a poor laborer from a small village near Lahore a little over a decade ago, at the center of a deadly storm of Islamist violence radical that threatens to overwhelm Pakistan, the story of Asia Bibi, aged 53, could have been planned by anyone.
What did she do?
Ms. Bibi, a small mother of five, had taken a break to prepare Phalsa juice, but when she offered it to colleagues, an argument had erupted. Her colleagues claimed that she had insulted the Prophet and Qur'an and that an FIR had been filed against her a few days later. Ms. Bibi stated that the women, who had refused to touch the fruit juice vase because she belonged to another religion, had been keen to convert her and that she had caught them in the act, but had denied the accusation of blasphemy. However, from that moment on, the facts of the case became irrelevant. Ms. Bibi was imprisoned and sentenced to death, and anyone seeking to defend her or ask for a rational hearing was killed or threatened with violence by the mob. A judge refrained from hearing Ms. Bibi's case, others adjourned the case as threats grew. When Ms. Bibi was acquitted by the Supreme Court last month, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, leader of the radical Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) group, called for the immediate assassination of the judges who handed down the verdict.
Why did this lead to violence?
Others have paid with their lives. In 2011, Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab, was murdered by his bodyguard for appealing on the part of Ms. Bibi after meeting with her in prison and for a re-examination of what he called the country's "black" anti-blasphemy laws. A month later, Pakistan's only Christian minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was shot for suggesting the same thing. Each time, there was talk of revising the laws or releasing Ms. Bibi. Crowds led by Islamist parties as well as marginalized, such as Hafiz Saeed's TLP and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, took to the streets, pushing the major cities into paralysis by their violence, looting and fires. Mr. Rizvi, former head of the "auqaf" wheelchair government of the Punjab State Department of Religious Affairs, has himself created the case, and has come to his present power when it does not. he was fired for publicly defending the man who killed Taseer, Mumtaz. Qadri, and urging crowds to protest violently against Qadri's execution.
What is the government's position?
Whenever Mr. Rizvi waved the banner of the revolt against the Pakistani state, the government, and even the army, retreated, thus strengthening his influence in the country. In the latter case, the Imran Khan government accepted requests made by TLP groups that were crossing Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi after Bibi 's acquittal on Oct. 31, including a signed statement that it was not safe for them. would not oppose a review appeal of the acquittal. promising to prevent him from leaving the country.
All the while, Ms. Bibi remained in jail, mostly in solitary confinement, while her husband and children fled to the UK. His lawyer, Saif Ul Malook, escaped to the Netherlands this week, warning that he was not getting help, no lawyer Pakistan would help other people, like Ms. Bibi, who face charges of blasphemy, often directed against minorities, who represent less than 8% of the population, while these charges are used mainly as cover to settle accounts Human Rights Commission of Pakistan .
What's in store?
Ignoring the broader policy surrounding her case, Ms. Bibi told reporters, during a phone call from prison, that she was "delighted" by the verdict that had made her free.
However, she may never be truly free from the fear that haunts her family and the danger that threatens anyone who has tried to make her voice heard in her favor, and could still be held prisoner by threats from extremist religious groups who have chosen to turn this impotent and unhappy woman into the target of their fanatical fury.
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