Christian leader urges Pakistan to release Asia Bibi to India

She was arrested on 19 June 2009 and sentenced to death by a lower court in November 2010.

File photo

New Delhi:  Lay Catholic leader and rights activist John Dayal has met with High Commissioner of Pakistan in New Delhi urging Islamabad government to release ailing Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, who is facing a death sentence and in jail since 2009, and to allow her to come to India where local groups have volunteered to take care of her.

In a letter to High Commissioner Abdul Basit, Dayal also expressed the shock of the Christian community at the brutal torture and burning alive of a bonded labor couple, Shahzad and Shama Masih, near Lahore two weeks ago.

The focus of their communication were the twin issues of burning alive of 28-year old Shahzad Masih and his five-month-pregnant wife Shama Masih, 24, in a brick kiln in Lahore’s Radha Kishan Kot recently, and the continuing incarceration since 2009 of Asia Bibi [Aashiya Noreen] of Sheikhupura, arrested on trumped up charges of blasphemy, and sentenced to death under Pakistan’s infamous Blasphemy Law.

Dayal's letter noted that over 300 cases are registered under the Blasphemy laws in Pakistan, perhaps more than 250 of then are filed against various Muslim sects, including Shias and Ahmedias, and others.

"This is little consolation to the victims, most of who are targeted under absolutely false charges to settle local scores, or to terrorize religious minorities, specially the tiny Christian community in the country," he said.

Christian groups have offered to take care of Asia Bibi, who is ill, and her family. "We in India will be very happy to take care of her medical needs and of her family if she is allowed to come to India," he said and appealed the government if Pakistan to set Asia Bibi free and to allow her and her family to travel to India.

Dayal noted that Asia Bibi’s is a test case of miscarriage of justice under political pressure. Fundamentalist groups have threatened the members of the court and her defence team.

She was arrested on 19 June 2009 and sentenced to death by a lower court in November 2010. Since then, she has been in solitary confinement for security reasons, and has become a symbol of the struggle against the blasphemy law.

Human rights groups have described her case as symptomatic of the deeply rooted problems of prejudice, inefficiency, corruption, and under-resourcing, which are amplified in blasphemy cases, specially for Christians and other religious minorities.

He also called upon Pakistan to make a test case out of the double murder of Shahzad Masih and wife so that all those guilty in the conspiracy and crime are punished, and a strong message goes out to others that the government is determined to stop violence against religious minorities.

He also repeated call of human rights activists across the globe to repeal the Blasphemy Laws, "which have brought such tragedy and pain to innocent people of Pakistan."

Press Release