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KARACHI, Pakistan – After protesters blocked highways and forced the closure of schools and businesses, the Pakistani government and rabid Islamist rulers acquitted of acquittal. 39; a Christian woman accused of blasphemy reached an agreement Friday night allowing new calls and preventing him from leaving the premises. country.
The woman, Asia Bibi, was sentenced in 2010 for little evidence of violation of Pakistan's blasphemy law by insulting the Prophet Muhammad. She spent years on death row before being acquitted on Wednesday by the country's Supreme Court.
Despite her legal victory, hailed by human rights groups around the world, Bibi's lawyers and her family have expressed their fears for her safety, as extremist Islamist parties in Pakistan have called for her execution. .
Under the agreement, considered by some analysts as capitulation to extremists, the government agreed not to oppose the appeal to the Supreme Court against Ms. Bibi's acquittal. She also agreed to initiate legal proceedings to prevent her from traveling abroad.
The government has also announced the release of all protesters arrested since Wednesday. For their part, protesting religious leaders apologized if their statements offended anyone, an apparent reference to their criticism of military leaders.
While several Western countries offered to grant asylum to Ms. Bibi, allowing her to leave Pakistan immediately would cause further turmoil for the new UK government. Prime Minister Imran Khan. Mr. Khan is visiting China in search of a financial bailout for the country's distressed economy.
The protesters, led by a religious called Khadim Hussain Rizvi, had asked for Ms. Bibi to be placed on the so-called exit checklist, a list of people prevented from leaving Pakistan.
Ben-Her Gill, a leader of the Christian community in Islamabad, the capital, said Ms. Bibi was still in Pakistan, in a secret place under the protection of the authorities.
Protesters took to the streets of several cities Friday to demand that the Supreme Court reconsider its decision and that the three judges of the panel that published it, including the Supreme Court President Mian Saqib Nisar, be dismissed.
Mobile networks were suspended in Islamabad and three other major cities in Pakistan's largest province, the Punjab, as authorities tried to stop protesters from organizing and extending protests. .
A highway linking Islamabad to the city of Lahore has been blocked and rail networks across the country have been seriously slowed down by the protests. Schools in Islamabad, Punjab and Kashmir have been closed due to protests.
Religious leaders also demanded the ouster of the Pakistani army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, accusing him of having consented to Ms. Bibi's release. Shortly after the decision of the Supreme Court, Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadri, another prominent leader of the protest, urged the army generals to revolt against their high commander.
The army said on Friday that it had nothing to do with Ms. Bibi's release. "The armed forces hope that this case will be resolved without disturbing the peace," said General Asif Ghafoor, spokesman for the army, quoted by the official media.
Ms. Bibi, a five-year-old mother in her early fifties, played a central role in the debate over Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws, which critics say are often used to persecute and intimidate members of religious minorities. Blasphemy is a highly inflammable subject in Pakistan, with emotions that escape mere rumors that Islam has been insulted. The accused are often killed by crowds even before the police can intervene, according to human rights groups.
Ms. Bibi was accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad after fighting with Muslim farm workers in June 2009 in her home village of Punjab. She was dragged to a local police station and charged with blasphemy. In 2010, she was found guilty and sentenced to death, the first woman to be sentenced for blasphemy on Pakistan's death row.
In 2011, Salmaan Taseer, declared lay governor of Punjab province, who campaigned for the release of Ms. Bibi and for the modification of the blasphemy laws, was shot by his own police bodyguard outside a cafe in a posh district of Islamabad.
Two months later, Shahbaz Bhatti, a minority minister and the only Christian minister in the Pakistani government, was shot dead outside his home in Islamabad after he also called for changes to the blasphemy law.
"The issues related to Ms. Bibi's case are extremely high," said Saroop Ijaz, a lawyer in Lahore.
"These groups have always extracted their pound of flesh," said Ijaz, who predicted that the government would be forced to yield to protesters' demands. "They have degenerated to the point that it has become difficult for the government to avoid this fate. What this means for Asia Bibi, who has suffered nearly a decade of incarceration, remains unclear. "
