Published: 5:06 pm, November 14, 2014 Story By:
John
Dayal
New
Delhi: Indian Human Rights and Freedom of Faith activist John Dayal has urged
the Pakistan government to release ailing Aisa Bibi, facing a death sentence
and in jail since 2009 under the notorious Blasphemy laws.
Dayal,
who had met High Commissioner of Pakistan Abdul Basit in New Delhi recent,
pleaded the Islamabad government to allow the Christian woman to come to India
where local groups have volunteered to take care of her urgent medical
condition.
In
a letter to the High Commissioner, Dayal, who is the secretary general of the
All Indian Christian Union, also expressed the shock of the Indian Christians
at the brutal torture and burning alive of a bonded labor couple, Shahzad and
Shama Masih, near Lahore two weeks ago.
The
human rights activists pointed out that in more than 300 cases under the
Blasphemy laws in Pakistan, more than 250 have been filed against various
Muslim sects, including Shias and Ahmedias. Most victims are targeted under
absolutely false charges to settle local scores, or to terrorize religious
minorities, specially the tiny Christian community in the country, Dayal’s
letter noted.
He
said Christian groups in India have offered to take care of Aisa 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. We
therefore appeal to you to impress on the Government if Pakistan to set Aisa
Bibi free and to allow her and her family to travel to India.”
According
to Dayal, a veteran journalist, Aisa Bibi’s is “a test case of miscarriage of
justice under political pressure.’ Fundamentalist groups, he added, have
threatened the members of the court and her defense team.
Bibi
was arrested on June 19, 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, especially for Christians and other religious
minorities, Dayal’s letter said.
He
ended the letter appealing the government to repeal the Blasphemy Laws, which,
he said, have brought tragedy and pain to innocent people of Pakistan.
http://mattersindia.com/indian-faith-activist-urges-islamabad-to-asia-bibi/
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