PROTESTS OVER ACQUITTED CHRISTIAN WOMAN FIZZLE OUT

Pakistani police have fired tear gas and wielded batons to disperse a rally by Islamic radicals in the southern port city of Karachi against the acquittal of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

But despite the Karachi violence, nationwide rallies the extremists had called for on Friday against Asia Bibi’s freedom mostly fizzled.

Bibi had spent eight years on death row on charges of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik party, which petitioned the Supreme Court to reverse its Oct. 31 acquittal of Bibi, had called for new rallies after the top court this week threw out its petition. It had also urged businesses and transport operators to strike but the call was ignored.

There were scatterings of small rallies against Bibi in northwestern Pakistan and the capital, Islamabad.

After being freed, Bibi said she just wants to hug her daughters who are in Canada.

ARIF ALI / AFP / GETTY IMAGES Pakistani Islamists hold a poster displaying the portrait of Asia Bibi, a Christian Pakistani woman accused of blasphemy, during a protest in Lahore on Friday against the Supreme Court decision on Bibi’s case.