Saturday, June 29, 2013

Rimsha Masih and her family in Canada after religious asylum

Rimsha Masih, a 14 years Christian girl with Down syndrome arrested on blasphemy charges from a slum of Islamabad in August 2012.
on complaint of a local mosque cleric of Mehrabad, is in Canada where she and her family have been granted asylum. Rimsha Masih was acquitted from charges of blasphemy from city courts of Islamabad when Muslim witnesses stepped forwarded before judge to testify that Imam of mosque allegedly put pages of Quran teaching in trash bag thrown by 14 years Christian girl. Later, Islamabad high Courts ordered to quash the FIR First Information Report lodged against Rimsha Masih under Section 295 B and C PPC, to end this controversial blasphemy law case. A leading Pakistani Muslim Cleric Allama Tahir Ashrafi, Chairman of Pakistan Ulma Council played a positive role to bring facts on ground about this false blasphemy case. The family and Rimsha Masih were moved to an unknown location in Pakistan for safety of her life as Muslim mob attacked her home and other Christian’s homes in Meherabad colony of Islamabad. The situation was so tense that police was forced to escort Rimsha Masih in a military helicopter from Adial Jail Rawalpindi after her bail due to security reasons which was covered by national and international media to make it very high profile case. As,Civil Society Activists who were handling case of Rimsha Masih and moved her to undisclosed location in Pakistan was upset when Muslim Cleric Chishti who was arrested on planting burnt Quran Teaching pages in Rimsha Masih trash bag had approached Supreme Court of Pakistan and challenged decision of IHC and his petition was admitted for hearing in January 2013. There was not any news released by APMA nor by its sister organization in Canada ICV to confirm asylum of Rimsha Masih and her family and when they moved to Canada but local Canadian Press spotted her and broke this news.

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