A lawyer of a young Christian girl arrested on blasphemy charges in a poor suburb of Islamabad moved a bail application before the local session court on Friday. The bail application has been moved before Session Judge West Muhammad Azam Khan. The hearing for the case is scheduled to begin on August 28. Police arrested Rimsha Masih, who reportedly has Down’s syndrome, in a low-income neighborhood of the capital last Thursday after she was accused of burning papers containing verses from the Quran, and remanded her for 14 days.
Rimsha, aged between 11 and 16, is being held in a jail in Islamabad’s twin city Rawalpindi, and her case has prompted concern from Western governments and fury from rights campaigners. Earlier on Thursday, Shamaun Alfred Gill, a spokesman for All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), told AFP that the lawyers were facing difficulties to see the accused girl and the jail authorities have told them to get permission from the top authorities. Her legal team said they had approached the higher authorities in Punjab province but could not get a go ahead for the meeting.
