Rimsha Masih, family get asylum in Canada

By
Asher John
-
34
373

Teenage blasphemy accused Rimsha Masih and her family have been granted religious asylum in Canada, Pakistan Today learnt on Friday.

Rimsha’s lawyer Tahir Naveed Chaudhry told Pakistan Today that the family comprising Rimsha, her three sisters and a brother, and parents had been moved to Canada two days before the dissolution of the National Assembly on March 16.

BACKGROUND

The 14-year-old resident of Meherabadi in Islamabad was detained when a neighbour claimed she had burned pages of the holy Quran. She spent three weeks on remand in an adult prison.

However, she was freed on bail after witnesses said she had been framed by a local prayer leader.

The case, involving an illiterate Christian girl, sparked calls for reform of the blasphemy laws, which carry the death penalty and which are used frequently to settle personal scores.

Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur Rehman threw out the case, citing a lack of witnesses.

Rimsha’s arrest – as an angry mob surrounded her home in the Christian slum just outside the federal capital – set off a deep period of soul searching in a country where blasphemy remains a hugely sensitive issue. Thousands are arrested each year on flimsy evidence and anyone daring to call for reform faces the threat of assassination.

Rimsha and her family were in hiding since she was freed on bail in September last year.

Hafiz Khalid Jadoon Chishti, the imam who first gave police the burned holy papers as evidence against her, was arrested for desecrating the holy Quran and tampering with evidence.

An official medical report classified Rimsha as “uneducated” and aged 14, but with a mental age younger than her years. Her lawyers had claimed that she was as young as 11 and suffers from Down’s Syndrome.

 

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34 COMMENTS

  3. Her father is on record as saying they would stay no matter what, but grim reality must have prevailed. she was Dead Girl walking if she ever came out of protective custody, likewise her family. Those who fled after her arrest, many of them, are still at a makeshift camp close to the Xtian cemetary in Islamabad. Ultimately the state was powerless to protect them, and the fallout from their eventual murders would have been more than the government wants right now. so they get shoehorned into Canada. This is no family like that of Malala…these are simple uneducated people with no saleable skills. They will have to make a cultural shift that will be profoundly difficult for them. but I am sure the Xtian Pak community in Canada will extend their hospitality. Best of luck, Rimsha and you family. you are sure going to need it.

  5. The core reason behind this problem,is not Religion.People always use religion as a weapon to justify their acts or take out their own frustration.I hope she finds a respectful and better life there.

    • @Naveen,
      While I agree that religion is not the problem, however, the interpretation of religion is a BIG problem. Unfortunately, Muslim countries in general and countries like Pakistan in particular have produced scores of Mullahs but very few religious scholars. The so-called blasphemy law should be either scrapped or reformed but unfortunately neither will happen. If you have a law that can frame an innocent for a sereve crime then that law is bound to create damage to the sociely.

  10. Proof, if proof was needed that the Pakistan State has failed.

    Every time a citizen is forced to flee because the state cannot or will not act to protect them, we are shamed a little bit more

  14. Her father is on record as saying they would stay no matter what, but grim reality must have prevailed. she was Dead Girl walking if she ever came out of protective custody, likewise her family. Those who fled after her arrest, many of them, are still at a makeshift camp close to the Xtian cemetary in Islamabad. Ultimately the state was powerless to protect them, and the fallout from their eventual murders would have been more than the government wants right now. so they get shoehorned into Canada. This is no family like that of Malala…these are simple uneducated people with no saleable skills. They will have to make a cultural shift that will be profoundly difficult for them. but I am sure the Xtian Pak community in Canada will extend their hospitality. Best of luck, Rimsha and you family. you are sure going to need it.

  16. شکر کریں ۔۔۔ گلاس توڑنے پہ ملازمہ کو جان سے مار دینے والوں کا تعلق ملک کی لبرل اور سیکولر جماعت سے تھا اس لیے معاملہ رفع دفع کرا لیا جائے گا ۔۔۔ ورنہ ۔۔۔ زرا ایک لمحے کو تصور کریں کہ اگر یہ ملازمہ کسی اسلام پسند لیڈر کے گھر میں ملازمہ ہوتی تو اب تک فیس بک اور ٹوئٹر پہ ایک طوفان آ چکا ہوتا ۔۔۔
    دیسی لبرل کیا کہتے ۔۔۔ اُن کا تذکرہ تو خیر رہنے ہی دیں اب تک تو خواتین کے حقوق کے تحفظ کے لیے کام کرنے والی عالمی این جی اوز کی طرف سے بھی مذمتی بیان آ چکے ہوتے ۔۔۔ اقوام متحدہ والے بھی پہلی فرصت میں اپنا فرض ادا کرنے آتے اور ۔۔۔
    برطانیہ، امریکہ یا آسٹریلیا جیسا کوئی ملک اب تک خاتون کے بچوں کو نیشنلٹی بھی آفر کر چکا ہوتا اور اس پار سے اُس پار تک اسلام پسندوں کی خواتیں دشمنی کے اشتہار لگائے جاتے ۔۔۔!

  17. The core reason behind this problem,is not Religion.People always use religion as a weapon to justify their acts or take out their own frustration.I hope she finds a respectful and better life there.

  18. @ Chris Cork,
    Lalay too vee insurance kra lay,
    Ganjani sarkar dee hukumat da koi pata nhi,
    tera vee polass muqabla na krwa devan.
    ROFL

  23. I m really glad to read the comments that how people take it positively.
    statistics tells more victimization through blasphemy laws during nawaz Sharif regime.therefore, we need to be watchful.

  25. شکر کریں ۔۔۔ گلاس توڑنے پہ ملازمہ کو جان سے مار دینے والوں کا تعلق ملک کی لبرل اور سیکولر جماعت سے تھا اس لیے معاملہ رفع دفع کرا لیا جائے گا ۔۔۔ ورنہ ۔۔۔ زرا ایک لمحے کو تصور کریں کہ اگر یہ ملازمہ کسی اسلام پسند لیڈر کے گھر میں ملازمہ ہوتی تو اب تک فیس بک اور ٹوئٹر پہ ایک طوفان آ چکا ہوتا ۔۔۔
    دیسی لبرل کیا کہتے ۔۔۔ اُن کا تذکرہ تو خیر رہنے ہی دیں اب تک تو خواتین کے حقوق کے تحفظ کے لیے کام کرنے والی عالمی این جی اوز کی طرف سے بھی مذمتی بیان آ چکے ہوتے ۔۔۔ اقوام متحدہ والے بھی پہلی فرصت میں اپنا فرض ادا کرنے آتے اور ۔۔۔
    برطانیہ، امریکہ یا آسٹریلیا جیسا کوئی ملک اب تک خاتون کے بچوں کو نیشنلٹی بھی آفر کر چکا ہوتا اور اس پار سے اُس پار تک اسلام پسندوں کی خواتیں دشمنی کے اشتہار لگائے جاتے ۔۔۔!

  27. Khuda Ka Shoker ho ak family tou is jahanum say nikli ….
    Hahahahahahahahahahahahah im happy

  28. Bullshit…foreign either west or whatever it is- they wont let a chance to let down Pakistan..wrong is wrong.. let over judiciary and all systems establish themselves..rather then u westerns come from no where to help – if you really want to help atleast be vocal in kashmir, palestine..where it matters most…Bullshit salay

  29. if some faked fantanic mullas have been hanged in centre of the city cases like Rimsgha or secterian killing would have gone down and eventually finish.

  31. Christian are not safe under Islam whether there is blesphemy law or not. Plight of christians will not change in Islam, it is advocated. No doubt Christians are true native and owner of this land, we should either leave this country or have separate independant part – all the easter valley of river Chinab to Indian border, or we should find another home in another country and internation community press Pakistan to pay for the full repatriation and rehabilitation cost about one to two billion dollars US.

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