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  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Pakistan

    Four girls, two boys get death sentence for dancing at a wedding party in Kohistan

    A tribal court in Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhunkhwa (formerly NWFP) has handed down death penalty to six people, including four girls and two boy for dancing in a wedding party.
    The Jirga (tribal gathering) issued a decree after a mobile phone video emerged of the six in a remote village.

    Pakistani authorities in the area said local clerics had ordered the punishment over allegations that the men and women danced and sang together in Gada village, in defiance of strict tribal customs that men and women should stay separately at weddings.

    “It was decided that the men will be killed first, but they ran away so the women are safe for the moment. I have sent a team to rescue them and am waiting to hear some news,” a police officer told a news agency, adding that the women had been confined to their homes.

    “This is tribal enmity. The video has been engineered to defame the tribe, he added.

    http://www.indiatvnews.com/news/worl...ding-7805.html
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    'Down's syndrome girl', 11, faces death penalty for desecrating Koran in Pakistan

    An 11-year-old girl thought to suffer from Down's Syndrome is facing the death penalty in Pakistan for apparently burning pages from the Koran.

    Furious mobs of Muslim locals gathered outside the home of Christian girl Rifta Masih after she was found with charred pages of the Islamic holy book.

    She was arrested and has been held in custody for the last 14 days under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws. A conviction could see her executed.

    A Pakistani police officer, Zabi Ullah, said today that the girl was arrested after hundreds of neighbors gathered outside her house in Mehrabadi, a poor outlying district of the capital, Islamabad.

    He said the police took the girl to the police station, and that she’s been held for 14 days while authorities investigate.

    About 500-600 people had gathered outside her house in Islamabad, and they were very emotional, angry and they might have harmed her if we had not quickly reacted,’ he said.

    ‘Some Muslims from the area claim the girl had burned pages of the Koran, and we are investigating, and we have not reached any conclusion,’ he said.

    Another police official, Qasim Niazi, said when the girl was brought to the police station she had a shopping bag that contained various religious and Arabic-language papers that had been partly burned but no Koran.

    Officers added that the matter could be dropped once the investigation is completed and the atmosphere is defused, saying there was ‘nothing much to the case.’ He did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the case.

    Meanwhile, Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari said he had 'taken notice' of the reports of the arrest and asked Pakistan's interior ministry to present a report to him.

    There were varying reports on the girl’s age and whether she suffered from Down's Syndrome. Ullah said she was 16 while other officials have said she was either 12 or 11. Niazi said that when the girl was brought to the police station she was scared and unable to speak normally, but he did not know whether she suffered from mental health issues.

    The arrest of the girl and outrage among the local community demonstrates the deep emotion that suspected blasphemy cases can evoke in this conservative Muslim country, where rising extremism often means religious minorities live in fear of persecution.

    Christians often live in fear that they will be accused of blasphemy, and many critics say the legislation is sometimes used to settle scores.

    Angry mobs have been known to sometimes take the law into their own hands and beat or kill people who are accused of violating the blasphemy laws. In July, thousands of people dragged a Pakistani man accused of desecrating the Koran from a police station in the central Pakistani city of Bahawalpur, beat him to death and then set his body on fire.

    And there were furious protests earlier this year after U.S. troops were accused of burning the Koran. Effigies of Barack Obama were burned in the street amid demands for an apology.

    Attempts to revoke or alter the blasphemy laws have been met with violent opposition, however.

    Last year, two prominent Pakistani political figures who spoke out against the laws were killed, in attacks that raised concerns about the rise of religious extremism in Pakistan.

    Liberal politician Salman Taseer was shot and killed by one of his own guards in January 2011, and in March 2011, militants gunned down Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian minister in Pakistan’s Cabinet.

    A spokesperson for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Farhatullah Babar, said the president has ‘serious note’ of reports of the girl’s arrest and has asked the Interior Ministry to look into the case.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...=feeds-newsxml
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    Pakistan arrests accuser in blasphemy case

    Pakistani police say authorities have arrested an imam who had accused a Christian girl of blasphemy.

    Munir Jaffery, an investigating officer in the case, said on Sunday that Khalid Jadoon Chishti was arrested late on Saturday for allegedly having planted pages of a Quran in a shopping bag containing burned papers and ash that had been carried by the Christian girl.

    Fourteen-year-old Rimsha Masih was later accused of burning pages of the Quran, a serious offence in Pakistan that can result in life in prison.

    The reversal could lead to the girl being released from prison and defuse what has been a religiously charged case in Pakistan.

    The case has been especially sensitive because of the girl's young age and questions about her mental capacity.

    According to Pakistan's DawnNews, a large number of police made the arrest after Hafiz Zubair, a muezzin in the same mosque, gave witness testimony to a magistrate stating that he had seen Chishti plant the evidence.

    Zubair said that the imam had received the burnt pages in two bags from a local complainant, and that he had tried to prevent the leader from tampering with the evidence.

    Click here to read the full article
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  4. #4
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Pakistan court asked to end death penalty

    LAHORE, Pakistan (UPI) -- Pakistan's Supreme Court was asked Monday to declare the death penalty unconstitutional, a ruling that would free 8,000 people awaiting execution.

    A petition requesting the abolition of the death penalty was filed by an attorney identified only as Zafarullah, Dawn News reported.

    The lawyer asked the court to act on a petition he filed in July 2011 in which he argued that because of the high levels of corruption in Pakistan society, the chances were high that many innocent people had been declared guilty.

    He said all depth sentences should be commuted to life in prison.

    Under the constitution, Zafarullah contended, the right to life was a natural right guaranteed by the constitution and that the unnatural ending of life was inconsistent with that right.

    http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-Ne...#ixzz26kK9QbpT

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    Woman Being Held in Jail With 3 Day old Baby

    A British woman who was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking in Pakistan remains in jail with her child, despite concerns about the baby's welfare.

    Khadija Shah, 25, of Birmingham gave birth to her daughter, Malaika, a few weeks ago at a hospital in the city of Rawalpindi, an hour's drive from the capital, and was escorted back to jail with the infant only three days later, to the shock and dismay of her lawyer.

    "The baby has had constant diarrhea, and Khadija complained that jail attendants are giving her strong medicine that is lethal for such a young child," Shahzad Akbar, legal counsel for Shah, told CNN

    "She would have been able to look after her child if she was granted bail," he said.

    CNN has attempted to reach the jail for comment about the claims, but officials have not yet responded to calls. However, jail officials have said in media reports that the baby is receiving proper care.

    Read more: $2.6 million in cocaine found in British woman's luggage, Indonesians say

    Shah, who denies the charges against her, appeared in court Thursday with her infant daughter.

    American women protest in Pakistan Grasping the child, and barely able to speak through tears, she said she didn't want to give up her daughter, despite the conditions in the jail.

    "No, I can't give her to anyone, I can't give her up," Shah told CNN before she was returned to her cell. "It's not that bad," she said of the conditions there.

    Still, covering her face and hiding her tears, Shah conceded, "I'm worried about her. ..."

    In Pakistan's legal system, mothers can keep their children in jail with them while their cases are heard -- a process that can take years.

    Shah, arrested on drug charges in May, was allegedly found carrying more than $5 million worth of heroin before boarding a flight to England from Islamabad.

    She was six months pregnant and traveling with her 5-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter when airport security detained her at Islamabad airport after a "tipoff," according to her lawyer.

    "Shah's (older) children were also incarcerated with her until recently, when they were turned over to their grandparents," Akbar said.

    Col. Tauqeer, the commander of the Anti Narcotics Force responsible for Shah's arrest, told CNN that Shah was apprehended after spot checking.

    "It was routine checking when we found more than 63 kilos of heroin sewn into embroidered cloth in her bag," Tauqeer said.

    The Anti Narcotics Force "followed procedure," according to Tauqeer, and Shah now faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of the charges against her.

    According to the Anti Narcotics Force, 306 people, including foreign nationals, have been convicted in drug-related cases so far in 2012, and 37 tons of drugs have been seized across the country.

    "There are no weaknesses in our case," according to Tauqeer, who said Shah had made two prior trips to Islamabad, during which she probably transported drugs to England.

    He said she told law enforcement officers that she had no relatives in Pakistan and that she was there on vacation.

    "First she said she had no family, then her relatives arrived from Lahore to take the children; then she said she was married, and (it) turned out she was divorced. There are too many discrepancies in her statements," Tauqeer said.

    Shah said that she had no knowledge of carrying drugs and that she was given a bag by a friend to take home to England, her lawyer told CNN. He also denies Tauqeer's claims about prior trips and any discrepancies in Shah's story.

    Now, as Shah tends to her infant daughter in jail, her other children are in the UK; taken back, her lawyer says, by their grandmother.

    But there is little chance Shah will join them anytime soon. A trial awaits her in Pakistan.

    http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktl...,7878269.story
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  6. #6
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    She's a Pakistani who may have been born in Britain.

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    Pakistan carries out first execution in four years

    Pakistan executed its first prisoner in four years on Thursday, hanging a convicted murderer who was a former army serviceman, police said.

    Despite the execution of Muhammad Hussain in northwest Pakistan, activists do not expect the country's moratorium on the death penalty to be lifted since this case involved someone in the military. The last execution, in December 2008, also involved the death of a soldier.

    Pakistan has more than 8,000 inmates on death row, but a moratorium on executions has been in effect for four years. Pakistani officials say they are working on a draft law to ban the death penalty.

    Human rights organizations support the ban, saying that the courts and police in Pakistan are too inept to ensure a fair trial.

    "If you look at our investigation system, at the poor quality of the evidence produced in court, how can people get the death penalty on the basis of this?" said Zohra Yusuf, Chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

    "Most come from underprivileged backgrounds and don't have access to good legal help."

    Thursday's execution came after the head of Pakistan's powerful army rejected a plea for clemency, Yusuf said. After the army rejected the plea, the president did not defer the execution, she said.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8AE0VP20121115
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  8. #8
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Stro07's Avatar
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    The first time we get positive news from Pakistan! Yahoo!
    Last edited by Stro07; 11-16-2012 at 05:44 PM.

  9. #9
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    I agree! But it looks like they're drafting legislation to ban the DP which seems hard to believe in a place like Pakistan!

  10. #10
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    Pakistani court throws out charges against Christian girl accused of blasphemy

    A Pakistani court on Tuesday dismissed blasphemy charges against Rimsha Masih, a Christian teenager whose case prompted international outrage.

    "She is a free woman, like any ordinary citizen," said Abdul Hameed Rana, one of Rimsha's lawyers. The high court in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad found that the accusations against her were legally unsound, he said.

    The court's decision follows weeks of uncertainty for Rimsha and her family, who were forced to go into hiding because of the furor surrounding the case.

    Rimsha's ordeal began in August when she was arrested over allegations she had burned pages of the Quran, Islam's holy book, for cooking fuel. She denied the charges, which carried the possible sentence of life in prison.

    Confusion still surrounds the events of the day when Rimsha was arrested. The accusations against her were made by a neighbor, who shouted in protest, drawing a crowd that grew angry over the allegations that pages of the Quran had been burned.

    Some residents of the Islamabad neighborhood said the teenager was beaten. Others said she ran back home and locked herself inside. When police arrived, they arrested her.

    Her detention stirred up religious tensions in the predominantly Muslim country. It also generated fierce criticism of Pakistani authorities and renewed debate over the nation's controversial blasphemy laws.

    Human rights activists attacked the decision to put Rimsha into the adult criminal justice system, noting she was believed to be around 14 years old. She was later released on bail and her case was transferred to a juvenile court.

    The situation took a dramatic twist in September when police arrested a local imam over allegations he had framed Rimsha. According to police, witnesses said they had seen the Muslim cleric, Khalid Jadoon Chishti, tear pages out of a copy of the Quran and add them to the bag of ashes being cited as evidence against Rimsha.

    That case became more complicated last month when Chishti's lawyers said that three of the witnesses had recanted their statements at a bail hearing. The case against Chishti will continue in district court following the high court ruling Tuesday, according to Rana, the lawyer for Rimsha.

    Pakistan's blasphemy laws were first instituted to keep peace between religions. But they have been criticized by human rights advocates, who say the laws enable legal discrimination against religious minorities.

    There have been about 1,400 blasphemy cases since the laws were first enacted in 1986, according to Human Rights Watch. There are more than 15 cases of people on death row for blasphemy in Pakistan, and 52 people have been killed while facing trial for the charge, according to the organization.

    Rimsha and her family spoke to CNN in September from an undisclosed location after she was released on bail.

    The teen denied that she defiled the Quran. She said she was happy to be with her family, but feared for her life.

    "I'm scared," she said by phone. "I'm afraid of anyone who might kill us."

    Now that her case has been dismissed, it still remains unclear what kind of life she might be able to have, given the controversy surrounding the accusations she faced.

    Aid groups in the United States, Italy and Canada have offered the teen and her family a home outside Pakistan, a family representative said.

    But she has said she wants to stay in her home country.

    http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/20/world/...irl/index.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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