Pakistan Imam Held In ‘blasphemy Girl’ Case

Pakistan Imam Held In ‘blasphemy Girl’ Case, The cleric who accused a Christian girl of desecrating the Qur’an is now accused of framing her. Pakistan imam held in ‘blasphemy girl’ case, A Pakistani cleric who accused a young Christian girl of blasphemy in a case that sparked international concern was remanded in custody Sunday on suspicion of evidence-tampering and desecrating the Koran.

The girl, Rimsha, has been held in prison since being arrested in the poor Islamabad suburb of Mehrabad more than two weeks ago accused of burning papers containing verses from the Koran, in breach of Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws.

A medical report last week said she had a mental age of less than 14 and her case has prompted concern among Western governments and anger from rights groups who say Pakistan’s strict blasphemy legislation is often abused to settle personal scores.

Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, the imam of the mosque in Rimsha’s area, who first gave police the burned papers as evidence against her, was detained by police on Saturday evening.

“The imam was arrested after his deputy Maulvi Zubair and two others told a magistrate he added pages from the Koran to the burnt pages brought to him by a witness,” police investigator Munir Hussain Jaffri said.

Zubair and the two others, Mohammad Shahzad and Awais Ahmed, said they had urged Chishti not to interfere with the papers, Jaffri said.

“They protested that he should not add something to the evidence and he should give the evidence to the police as he got it and should not do this,” Jaffri said.

“But they said Chishti said, ‘You know this is the only way to expel the Christians from this area.’”

On August 24 Chishti told AFP he thought Rimsha had burned the pages deliberately as part of a Christian “conspiracy” to insult Muslims, and said action should have been taken sooner to stop what he called their “anti-Islam activities” in Mehrabad.