Rimsha, a test case to correct misuse of blasphemy laws

BY: Ansar Abbasi

Rimsha case speaks volume of the failure and inefficiency of the Islamabad police but its latest turns and twists have made it a perfect study case that can help prevent misuse of the blasphemy law in the country. Though it is for the courts to judge the facts of the case, the latest evidence reported by the media against Imam Masjid Khalid Jadoon allegedly shows him stage-managing the whole episode to get the area vacated from Christian community. Here is a test for the police, prosecution and the courts to make Khalid Jadoon, if he is proven guilty, an example for others, which on the one hand would help deter people from registering fabricated cases of blasphemy against anyone and, on the other, pave the way to devise a foolproof procedure for registration of FIR under this law. However, because of the failure of the police or owing to the fraudulence of a person like Khalid Jadoon, there is no reason to support the west-led campaign to quash the blasphemy law. Certain NGOs and some voices in the media, it is expected, would try to fuel the Rimsha case to target the blasphemy law as per the western agenda. Reports are also making rounds in the capital that some NGOs are in contact with some western embassies to get Rimsha fly outside Pakistan along with her family as soon as she is released so that the anti-blasphemy law campaign is fuelled globally against Pakistan and Islamic laws. The facts of the case as reflected in the media so far confirm that the Islamabad police did not properly investigate the case before booking the eleven-year old Rimsha in the blashphemy case. It is said that police was under pressure to register the case despite its findings otherwise. Why was it done and under whose pressure? The Islamabad police needs to answer the question to help expose the real culprit behind this episode. Under the law such a case could only be registered following SP-level investigation but in this case seriously flawed investigation is apparently done with ulterior motives. Why did not the police discover before the registration of the FIR what is revealed now after media had highlighted the case? Just recently police have found three witnesses including the Moazan of the same mosque to expose the alleged dirty role of Khalid Jadoon but who would answer the basic question as to why in such a loose case an eleven-year girl was booked under extremely serious charges of blasphemy. Some heads must roll in the Islamabad police if the government is really interested to avoid resurfacing of such a flawed case. Religious scholars should also put their heads together to issue an edict for the person like Khalid Jadoon, who according to his Moazan had fabricated the evidence by adding a page of Quran that he had torn himself, in small plastic bag already containing burnt papers, to make it a perfect blasphemy case against the young girl. According to the Moazam, Khalid Jadoon was of the view that it would help get the area vacated from the Christian community.It is a shame that a person, who is an Imam masjid and should have been a model for others, has touched such lows of immorality and criminality. Such elements deserve to be given serious punishment for misusing an Islamic law to target the minority members of an Islamic society.