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MULTAN, Pakistan – The husband of a Christian woman acquitted eight years after being sentenced to death for blasphemy, but not released as a result of national protests, appealed on Sunday to US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May for help the family to leave Pakistan. The husband of Asia Bibi, Ashiq Masih, said in a brief video message that they were in danger in Pakistan.
"Please, help us, we have problems in Pakistan," Masih told Mr. Trump and May. Masih had previously told the Associated Press by phone that he and his wife feared for their lives. "We are now living under a heightened sense of fear."
Saiful Malook, Bibi's lawyer, has already fled the country for his safety.
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 accused him of insulting the Prophet of Islam, which resulted in his death sentence in 2010. Bibi's family has always maintained his innocence and said that she never insulted the prophet.
Insulting Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan, and the mere rumor of doing so may incite lynching.
The Pakistani Supreme Court acquitted Bibi on Wednesday of the death penalty charges, exasperating Islamist extremists who held three days of demonstrations nationwide demanding its execution. The raging protesters burned dozens of vehicles, blocked roads and attacked public and government property. a radical cleric also threatened to kill the three judges who acquitted Bibi. According to the Reuters news agency, Cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who heads the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Islamist Party (TLP), saw his Twitter account suspended on Monday for inciting violence.
Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian, observes journalist Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, addressing reporters in a prison in Sheikhupura, Pakistan, on November 20, 2010.
Reuters
The demonstrations ended after the government agreed to impose a travel ban on Bibi and allow him to examine his case. An application for review has been filed in the Supreme Court.
"There will be a war if they send Asia out of the country," Rizvi warned after the deal was concluded, according to Reuters.
Earlier in the day, police announced that more than 150 people had been arrested for arson, vandalism and violence at demonstrations.
Senior police officer Nayab Haider said the police used video clips to identify people involved in assaults, property fires and vehicles and blocking roads.
In defending the actions of the police, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the government could not spare those involved in acts of violence. He said the government cleaned up the blocked cities without bloodshed.
Pakistani protesters chant slogans against Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, at a protest in Karachi on October 13, 2016, in an archival photo.
Getty
"No government can tolerate a rebellion against the state," Chaudhry said.
The Minister of Human Rights, Shireen Mazari, tweeted that "appeasement to" avoid bloodshed "sends a dangerous message to non-state actors and undermines the concept of peaceful democratic protest".
"The state must uphold the rule of law, the Constitution and defend its institutions, especially when they are targeted," Mazari added.
Also on Sunday, some 2,000 Jamaat-e-Islami supporters staged a protest march in the southern port city of Karachi against the acquittal of Bibi, but remained peaceful.
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