Muslim cleric accused of Quran-burning frame-up
iSLAMABAD — A Muslim cleric is accused of stashing pages of a Quran in a Christian girl’s bag to make it seem like she burned the Islamic holy book, a surprising twist in a case that caused an international outcry over the country’s strict blasphemy laws.
Pakistani police arrested Khalid Chishti late Saturday after a member of the cleric’s mosque accused the imam of planting evidence as a way to push the Christians out of the neighborhood. Chishti denied the charges Sunday while being led to court in shackles, wearing a white blindfold.
“I have not done anything wrong. This is all fabrication,” he defiantly told reporters.
The imam’s arrest could release the girl, who supporters say is mentally disabled, from prison, where she faces a life sentence if convicted of charges she desecrated the Quran. A bail hearing is scheduled for today.
Police said Chishti planted pages of a Quran in a shopping bag containing burned papers and ash that had been carried by the Christian girl. The bag was then submitted as evidence to the police.
A member of his mosque came forward Saturday — more than two weeks after the girl’s arrest — and accused the imam of planting the evidence, the investigating officer said.
The case has shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the punishments for violating Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and caused an uproar in the country, largely because of the girl’s age and questions about her mental capacity.
The girl’s supporters say she is 11 years old and has Down syndrome; a medical board said she was about 14 and that her mental age didn’t match her physical age.
Outside the Islamabad mosque where the imam worked, local Muslims said the charges against their religious leader were trumped up by a fellow mosque member who had caused problems in the past.
If anything, residents said, there hasn’t been enough punishment of people accused of blasphemy.
“There is no problem in the blasphemy laws and its procedures,” said Malik Qadir.
Even the girl’s lawyer, Chaudhry, said he believed in the law and only wanted to make sure it wasn’t misused.
Most of the Christian families fled the Islamabad neighborhood where the incident happened, fearing retribution after the arrest. Somera Ashraf, a Christian woman from the girl’s neighborhood who had fled but recently returned, said she is still so worried for her children’s safety that she won’t let them go to school or even the nearby market.
“Wherever we went people were gathering and saying, ‘No Christians can live here,’ ” she said.