Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Thursday constituted an investigative team headed by a senior police superintendent (SSP) to probe the Rimsha Masih case.
A high level meeting was chaired by the interior minister in Islamabad to review the progress of investigation regarding Rimsa Masih, the 14-year old Christian girl accused of blasphemy – a case that has prompted worldwide concern.
The investigation, headed by SSP Tahir Alam, will be supervised by a district magistrate. Alam will submit a daily progress report of the investigation to the magistrate. The interior minister on Thursday also directed the Chief Commissioner to take into confidence the Islamabad Ulema Council and share the investigation in a transparent manner.
The young girl, belonging to a poor Islamabad suburb, has been in custody for nearly three weeks after she was accused of burning pages containing verses from the Quran. Last week, Khalid Jadoon, the imam who first gave police evidence against her, was arrested after his deputy accused him of adding pages from the holy book to the burnt papers taken from Rimsha. The girl, who is “uneducated” and has a mental age of less than 14 according to a medical report, will remain in a high-security prison until Friday at the earliest – by which time the minor will have spent 22 days in custody.