Pakistani Imam held for evidencetampering
In blasphemy case
ISLAMABAD, Sept 2, 2012 (AFP) - A Pakistani cleric who submitted evidence against a Christian girl accused of blasphemy has been arrested on suspicion of evidence-tampering and desecrating the Koran, police said Sunday.
Rimsha has been in custody since she was arrested in the poor Islamabad suburb of Mehrabad more than two weeks ago accused of burning papers containing verses from the Koran, in breach of Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws.
Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, the imam of the mosque in Rimsha's area who first handed over evidence, was arrested on Saturday after his assistants told a magistrate he had added pages from the Koran to the burnt pages to strengthen the case against the girl.
“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,” police investigator Munir Hussain Jaffri said.
Rimsha has been in custody since she was arrested in the poor Islamabad suburb of Mehrabad more than two weeks ago accused of burning papers containing verses from the Koran
Zubair and the two others, Mohammad Shahzad and Awais Ahmed, told police they had urged Chishti not to interfere with the papers, Jaffri said.
“They protested that he should not add something to the evidence and he should give the evidence to the police as he got it and should not do this,” Jaffri said.
“But they said Chishti said: 'You know this is the only way to expel the Christians from this area'. ”On August 24 Chishti told AFP he thought Rimsha had burned the pages deliberately as part of a Christian “conspiracy” to insult Muslims and said action should have been taken sooner to stop what he called their “anti-Islam activities” in