Islamist mobs demand DEATH for judges who stopped Christian being hanged for blasphemy
ISLAMIST hardliners across Pakistan have called for the deaths of the judges who overturned the verdict on a Christian woman sentenced to hang for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, while violent protests over her acquittal have rocked the nation.
Asia Bibi, who cannot read or write, had spent nearly eight years on death row for blasphemy against Muhammad before she was freed by the country’s supreme court.
But the ruling sparked mob protests and clashes with police in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan.
A leader of the hardline Muslim Tehreek-i-Labaik party, Muhammad Afzal Qadri, said the three supreme court judges who set aside the conviction of the mother-of-five “deserve to be killed”.
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws which carry a death sentence have the support of many people in the country.
However, the way these laws have been applied to Mrs Bibi has caused an international outcry.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan called for calm on a TV broadcast late last night, saying that protesters were "doing no service to Islam".
He added: “Which government can function like this, blackmailed by protests?
“Only anti-state elements talk like this, kill the judges, start a revolt in the army... They are only trying to beef up their vote bank.”
Earlier, judges overturned Mrs Bibi’s 2010 blasphemy conviction.
Critics say the blasphemy law is used to persecute religious minorities and justify censorship.
An elated Mrs Bibi said by phone from prison: "I can't believe what I am hearing, will I go out now? Will they let me out, really?
"I just don't know what to say, I am very happy, I can't believe it.”
Supporters of Mrs Bibi and her family are making plans to spirit her out of the country for their safety on her release.
Her ordeal began when she was convicted in 2010 of insulting the Prophet Muhammad during a row with neighbours a year earlier.
The row began when she was picking berries with Muslim women in a Punjab field.
She was asked to fetch some water when an argument broke out over whether a Christian was fit to touch water that would be drunk by Muslims.
During the heated argument some of the women said she insulted their religion, which she has always denied.
The women complained to a local cleric who took up the case.
Mrs Bibi’s supporters said the case was brought by her accusers simply because they held a grudge against her.
In 2011 a supporter of Mrs Bibi, Salmaan Taseer, the Punjab governor, was assassinated by his own bodyguard after calling for her release and reform of the country’s blasphemy laws.