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Rimsha case: Imam masjid, Khalid Jadoon held

If this Mofo is guilty - he has tried to hurt a young child, he should be treated as harshly as the law permits - a disgraceful sorry excuse for a human being.
 
how about the paranoid crowd eager to see Blasphemy in anything according to its own varying interpretation due to loophole in the law itself.

What you call as my paranoia is as valid a question as it can be.If salman Taseer can be declared as Blasphemer and killed subsequently just for saying that the lady must get fair trial then i have to be more worried about with the copy of Quran on my hard drive.

By the i wonder the judge who sentenced Mumtaz Qadiri did return to pakistan or not from haj.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws have left even judges in fear of their lives

If this is the situation of Judges then i've to be paranoid about blasphemy.after all jaan to sabhi ko pyari hoti hai.where i'll run away then...????back to india.....?

Everything you say 'is a valid question'....
Loop holes exist in every law in every country....Blasphemy laws are not immune to loopholes either..
Its good to abide by a country's laws while you live there.
And dont worry you are not a provoncial minister so stop co,paring yourself to salman taseer.
 
If this Mofo is guilty - he has tried to hurt a young child, he should be treated as harshly as the law permits - a disgraceful sorry excuse for a human being.

And, he burnt holy pages knowingly to implicate a child, he has committed a much bigger crime.
 
BBC News - Pakistan 'Koran plot' imam remanded in blasphemy case

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A Pakistani imam has been remanded in custody, accused of planting pages of the Koran among burnt pages in the bag of a Christian girl held for blasphemy.

The girl was detained two weeks ago near the capital Islamabad after an angry mob demanded she be punished.

Prosecutors say Imam Khalid Chishti will himself face charges of blasphemy.

The girl, named as Rimsha, is said to be about 14 and to have learning difficulties.

Imam Khalid Chishti allegedly told a witness, after tampering with the girl's bag, that this was a "way of getting rid of Christians", a prosecutor said.

The case has sparked international condemnation.

Earlier this week, a court extended Rimsha's detention at a maximum-security prison by a further two weeks.

Her father has said he fears for his daughter's life and for the safety of his family. He has called on Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to pardon her.

Rimsha's parents have been taken into protective custody following threats, and many other Christian families have fled the neighbourhood.

Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws are often used to settle personal vendettas, correspondents say.

Last year two leading politicians were assassinated after speaking out against the legislation.

'Proven conspiracy'
Imam Chishti appeared in the Islamabad court with a white blindfold and shackled hands.

There was a large police presence as he was ushered into the building.

"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," an investigator Munir Hussain Jaffri said.

He said Mr Zubair and some others had told the imam not to interfere, urging him to "give the evidence to the police as he got it".

According to Mr Jaffri, Imam Chishti had told them: "You know this is the only way to expel the Christians from this area."

The investigator said the cleric had been arrested at his home on Saturday under Pakistan's blasphemy law.

"By putting these pages in the ashes he also committed desecration of the Holy Koran and he is being charged with blasphemy," he said.

The girl's lawyer told AFP news agency that Rimsha "should be acquitted immediately", as it had been "fully proven that it was a conspiracy".
 
Everything you say 'is a valid question'....
Loop holes exist in every law in every country....Blasphemy laws are not immune to loopholes either..
Its good to abide by a country's laws while you live there.
And dont worry you are not a provoncial minister so stop co,paring yourself to salman taseer.
But Question remain valid either i ask it or somebody else asks it.When person is not sure what itself can be constituted as blasphemy then the loophole can be exploited as it needed by the accuser against accused.The only option is then such a law should be repeal.just like indian govt was forced to repeal TADA and UAPPA law in india due to persistent opposition from civil liberty groups. .

And yes i'm not Salman Taseer that mean i'll meet the fate worse than him that really makes me more fearful my life.
 
^^^ Same can be said about every other law......how many laws will be abolished?
 
^^^ Same can be said about every other law......how many laws will be abolished?
All ...............

Btw pakistani penal code based on british law must change in its entirety.In a sense there should be overall judicial and police reforms.

As for blasphemy law it has to be abolished .
 
"The law gave wide powers to law enforcement agencies for dealing with terrorist and 'socially disruptive' activities.The police were not obliged to produce a detainee before a judicial magistrate within 24 hours. The accused person could be remanded up to 1 year in police custody, as opposed to the maximum of 90 days detainment for the accused of other crimes.Confessions made to police officers was admissible as evidence in the court of law, with the burden of proof being on the accused to prove his innocence. A special court known as TADA court was set up to hear the cases and deliver judgements"

^^ No such special strings are attached with blasphemy laws..
Normal courts hear the cases,the accuser and the accused,both are required to produce evidence and the accused cannot be kept in custody indefinately ...aswas in the case of TADA.

So blasohemy laws are not comparable to TADA.
 
Imam arrested in Pakistan blasphemy case, stirring tensions




By Michael Georgy

ISLAMABAD | Sun Sep 2, 2012 9:06am EDT


(Reuters) - A Christian girl who was arrested under Pakistan's controversial anti-blasphemy law may have moved a step closer to freedom on Sunday after police detained a Muslim cleric on suspicion of planting evidence to frame her.

Still, Rimsha Masih, whose arrest last month angered religious and secular groups worldwide, may be in danger if she returns from jail to her village.

Some Muslim neighbors insist she should still be punished, and said the detained imam was a victim.


Under Muslim Pakistan's anti-blasphemy law, the mere allegation of causing offence to Islam can mean death. Those accused are sometimes killed by members of the public even if they are found innocent by the courts.

"Pour petrol and burn these Christians," said Iqbal Bibi, 74, defending the imam on the steps of the mosque where he preaches in Masih's impoverished village of Mehr Jaffer.


"The cleric of the mosque has been oppressed. He is not at fault. He is innocent."

Masih was accused by Muslim neighbors of burning Islamic religious texts and arrested, but on Sunday police official Munir Hussain Jafri said a cleric had been taken into custody after witnesses reported he had torn pages from a Koran and planted them in Masih's bag beside burned papers.

The imam, Khalid Jadoon Chishti, appeared briefly in court on Sunday before he was sent to jail for a 14-day judicial remand.

A bail hearing will be held on Monday for Masih, whose case has re-focused a spotlight on Pakistan's anti-blasphemy law, under which anyone who speaks ill of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad commits a crime punishable by death.

Activists and human rights groups say vague terminology has led to its misuse, and that the law dangerously discriminates against the country's tiny minority groups.

Critics of Pakistan's leaders say they are too worried about an extremist backlash to speak out against the law in a nation where religious conservatism is increasingly prevalent.

In January 2011, the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by his own bodyguard because the governor had called for reform of the anti-blasphemy law.

Two months after Taseer's murder, Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian, was killed by the Taliban for demanding changes to the law.

ANGRY MOBS

Convictions are common, although the death sentence has never been carried out. Most convictions are thrown out on appeal, but mobs have killed many people accused of blasphemy.

Masih's case has raised a high level of concern because of her age and media reports that she suffers from Down's Syndrome.

Some reports have said she is 11. A hospital said in a report she was about 14 but had the mental capacities of someone younger, and was uneducated.

Christians, who make up four percent of Pakistan's population of 180 million, have been especially concerned about the blasphemy law, saying it offers them no protection.

Convictions hinge on witness testimony and are often linked to vendettas, they complain.


In 2009, 40 houses and a church were set ablaze by a mob of 1,000 Muslims in the town of Gojra, in Punjab province. At least seven Christians were burned to death. The attacks were triggered by reports of the desecration of the Koran.

Two Christian brothers accused of writing a blasphemous letter against the Prophet Mohammad were gunned down outside a court in the eastern city of Faisalabad in July of 2010.

Masih's arrest triggered an exodus of several hundred Christians from her village after mosques reported over their loudspeakers what the girl was alleged to have done.

In the village, many Christian homes -- crude cement structures along crowded, dusty alleys -- are still padlocked.

A few Christians have returned but are reluctant to discuss Masih's case, saying it was up to the courts.

"We are poor people. What can we do?" said one, Mahmood Masih, adding that he was not scared of his Muslim neighbors.

Muslims in the village, where mangy dogs sniffed through piles of garbage near goats as an ice cream seller pedalled by on his bike, were far more vocal.

"If the cleric gets charged in this case we are all behind him. There will be unrest," warned Tasleem Maqbool, a woman in a black veil who said her daughter saw Masih throwing away trash that included burned religious materials.

Village clerics like Chishti hold far more sway over Pakistanis than government officials. They lead prayers and give guidance on many aspects of life.

"The cleric should be freed," said Noman, a 12-year-old boy wearing a t-shirt and shorts as bearded men gathered at the village mosque and barefoot children played nearby.

"She (Masih) should be punished."


Imam arrested in Pakistan blasphemy case, stirring tensions | Reuters
 
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