The Christian woman acquitted of the charge of blasphemy in Pakistan was released from prison and transferred to a secret and protected location, awaiting expatriation. The government struggles with extremist groups.
“Thank God. Praise the Lord. I am free”. The first words spoken by Asia Bibi are addressed to the Highest, as soon as she saw the sky, outside the women’s prison of Multan, where she has been imprisoned in recent years. As Vatican Insider learns from sources close to the woman’s family, Asia spent the first day as a free woman, after more than nine years behind bars, “thanking God constantly and repeatedly, who listened to her prayers”.
The 53-year-old Christian woman, sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010, saw the sun rise again this morning, November 8, after the Pakistani police enforced the release order issued by the Supreme Court of Islamabad, which on October 31 had acquitted Asia Bibi. The order was passed through the High Court of Lahore - where the appeal process took place - and through the court of Nankana, a town in Punjab where the judge in first instance issued the death sentence eight years ago.
Last night, November 7, around 10 p.m., Asia was taken on a state flight to the capital Islamabad and in the night, was transferred to a secret location where, under constant protection, she was finally reunited with her husband Ashiq Masih. A moment of emotion and immense happiness.
Zawar Hussain Warraich, director of the prison department in the province of Punjab, where Multan prison is located, and where Asia was imprisoned, confirms the Christian woman’s release: “In the case of Asia Bibi, the order was issued late and arrived at the penitentiary yesterday, November 7,” he said, reporting that the Christian has officially left her cell.
The operation was delicate because Asia, targeted by fundamentalists who want her dead, was in danger even in prison: as judicial sources in Pakistan reported to Vatican Insider, two months ago two guards of the Multan penitentiary were arrested, as they were organizing the murder of Asia Bibi.
Asia Bibi’s lawyer, Muslim Saiful Malook, who bravely defended her until acquittal, was also forced to flee to the Netherlands for security reasons after receiving death threats. Last night the lawyer said that Asia and her family were already on a direct flight abroad, but the Pakistani Foreign Ministry denied this news, confirming instead that the Punjab peasant girl had indeed been freed but is still in Pakistan.
Mohamed Faisal, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then explained that: “Asia Bibi is a free citizen”, but that “will leave the country only if the Supreme Court rejects the petition to review the sentence, filed against her acquittal”. This statement could help the Islamabad executive to keep at bay the radical groups that are once again organizing to take to the streets.
The acquittal of Asia Bibi, in fact, has generated in the “land of the pure” massive protests in which have taken part, for three days, more than 50 million militants of the radical party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (Tlp) that continues to ask for her hanging, claiming that she has committed and confessed the sin (and crime) of blasphemy. In Karachi, a metropolitan city in southern Pakistan, Islamic religious movements have organized new marches. And there are fears of new riots and reactions from extremists, who could be stirred up by the sermons pronounced by radical religious leaders on the occasion of tomorrow’s Islamic prayer, Friday 9 November.
Meanwhile, Christians in Pakistan express satisfaction with the decision of the Supreme Court and the release of Asia Bibi, but remain cautious, given the possible retaliation that could affect the Christian communities, 1.6% of over 200 million inhabitants of Pakistan, 96% Muslims. Aftab Mughal, a Catholic intellectual and director of the Minority Concern publication, which promotes the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan, told Vatican Insider: “The demonstrations against the verdict of innocence of Asia Bibi are the result of decades of indoctrination, based on distorted interpretations of the Islamic religion”.
“The self-proclaimed guardians of the faith sow panic in the country, in total disregard of the teachings of Islam, which promotes moderation, compassion and mercy,” he notes, observing that many commentators and Muslim leaders agree on this abuse of Islam. “Instead, we must be grateful to God, to the Pakistani judiciary and government - he concludes - for the liberation of Asia Bibi. Because the truth has won and justice has been done”.
