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Islamist protesters blocked roads in major cities of Pakistan for a second day, in opposition to the Supreme Court's decision to acquit a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy for eight years.
After her acquittal on October 31, Asia Bibi was released and taken to a secret location for her safety, in a climate of angry protest and death threats from an extremist Islamist party.
Her lawyer announced that she would soon leave the country. France and Spain have offered asylum to this mother of five children aged 54, Catholic.
Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, who overturned Bibi's 2010 conviction for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad, said that there was not enough evidence that she had violated the law. Pakistan's law on blasphemy and that she had "falsely accused".
The court's decision was hailed by human rights defenders. Omar Waraich, deputy director of South America for Amnesty International, described the decision as a "historic verdict".
Proponents of the Islamist extremist party Tehrik-e Labaik Pakistan (TLP) were enraged, blocking a dozen major roads in Karachi city in the south of the country, and others east of Lahore, Pakistani media reported.
The private schools of both cities were closed, as well as in the capital, Islambad.
Prime Minister Imran Khan warned the protesters that the government would not tolerate prolonged blockades.
"We will not allow any damage, we will not allow traffic to be blocked," Khan said in a televised speech late October 31. "I appeal to you, do not push the state to the extent that it is forced to act."
Khan's broadcast followed comments from a senior TLP official demanding the assassination of Chief Justice Nisar and two other judges.
"They all deserve to be killed," TLP co-founder Muhammad Afzal Qadri said at a demonstration in Lahore. "Either their safety, their driver or their cook should kill them."
Qadri also called for the ouster of Khan's new government.
Pakistani security forces deployed in front of churches to protect Christian minorities and urged protesters to disperse peacefully. Commandos were sent to protect Nisar and the other two high court judges who received death threats.
The case has been dividing Pakistan for a long time, where two politicians seeking to help Bibi were murdered and scandalized Christians around the world. Pope Francis declared that he had personally prayed for Bibi.
Insulting Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan, and the mere rumor of blasphemy can lead to lynching by mobs.
Bibi was sentenced to death by a district court in central Punjab province in 2010 for allegedly making disparaging remarks about Islam after neighbors opposed her drinking water because She was not Muslim. Bibi has always denied the allegations.
Christians represent only about 2% of the Pakistani population and are sometimes discriminated against.
According to a 2018 report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, about 40 people are on death row or serving life sentences in Pakistan for blasphemy.
At least 1,472 people were charged under Pakistan's blasphemy laws between 1987 and 2016, according to the Lahore-based Center for Social Justice.
Muslims made up the majority of those prosecuted, followed by members of the Ahmadiyya, Christian and Hindu minorities.
Human rights groups say laws are increasingly being exploited by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle their scores.
No judicial execution for blasphemy has ever occurred in Pakistan, but 20 indicted persons have been murdered.
Bibi's lawyer, Malook, said that she would be quickly removed from the country. He told the Associated Press that he planned to do the same because he had also received death threats.
"I'm afraid I have to leave Pakistan, which is the only way to save my life," he said.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia-based Asia Program at the Wilson Center, described the court's decision as "a major legal milestone for Pakistan."
Its importance, however, should not be overestimated, and the power of the religiously motivated crowd should not be underestimated, he said.
"The growing political influence of religious extremists, who boast of a great capacity for mobilization, suggests that the state will be under greater pressure than ever before," he said. he declares. "The sobering reality is that it will not be easier to press for reform, let alone repeal the blasphemy law, despite this historic and very courageous decision of the Court. supreme Pakistani. "
