ASIA/PAKISTAN - Case of blasphemy in Faisalabad: lawyers of Arif demand his immediate release

Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – “Immediate release”: this is the request made by Arif Masih's legal team, the 40 year old Christian arrested in Faisalabad for blasphemy. Thanks to the intervention by the Masihi Foundation, the lawyers are trying to get on top of a story that is very ambiguous. Meanwhile, Arif's family has been transferred to Lahore for security reasons.
This is the precise reconstruction of the case, retold to Fides by the Masihi Foundation: Muslim Shahid Yousaf (neighbour of Arif) was going to the market when he saw pieces of paper in the street. As he approached to pick them up, he noticed that they were pages of the Koran. He says that near the pages torn out there was also a threatening letter written in English. He then went to the police station in Sahianwala to file a complaint against unknown persons for blasphemy. The police registered the case and then, after some investigation, arrested Arif who lives in the same street with other Christian families. According to many local Christians and Muslims, Arif is the victim of a plot against him in revenge against his family, who had recently won a case in a land ownership dispute. The Masihi Foundation's lawyers have called on police to release Arif, since there is no evidence against him and the complaint is not registered against anyone: “They can not detain him without even a complaint against him or without any court order,” they say.
It should be noted, says the Foundation, that since 1986, 80% of complaints regarding blasphemy come from central Punjab and there have been 43 killings of accused, outside the law. There are so-called 'Taliban groups of Punjab' operating in the area of Faisalabad, who according to observers are responsible for the deaths of Governor Salman Taseer and of Catholic Minister Shahbaz Bhatti. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 12/4/2011)