Following death threats, her security on death row has been ‘beefed up’
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (ANS – April 15, 2016)
– Supporters of a Pakistani Islamic group demanded on Friday, April 15,
2016, the immediate execution of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman on
death row, and all others convicted under the country’s harsh blasphemy
law.
Media
reports monitored by ANS, learned that small groups from the Sunni
Tehreek party held demonstrations in several Pakistani cities warning
the government against any attempt to amend the blasphemy law.
A
statement from the party accused the government of seeking to change
the blasphemy law to pave way for transforming the country into a
secular and liberal state.
Thirsty
for blood, the protesters demanded the execution of all those convicted
of blasphemy including Asia Bibi, who was convicted in 2010. Her appeal
was dismissed by the Lahore High Court in 2014, but the supreme court
stayed her execution in 2015 and suspended the high court verdict.
Bibi
was originally arrested under the blasphemy law after she had a verbal
clash with Muslim women working at a farm harvesting berries in eastern
Punjab province. She was accused of insulting the prophet of Islam, a
charge she has repeatedly denied.
The
situation boiled over when Asia had been asked by her fellow workers to
go get them some water, and on the way back, she took a sip from a cup,
and when the other women found out, they accused her of “defiling” the
water as she was, in their eyes, an “infidel” and then she argued with
them. She apparently told them that the person she worshiped, Jesus, was
“still alive,” while the one they followed, Mohammed, was dead.
This resulted in her being beaten up, and then charged with blasphemy, a charge she is appealing.
Things
got worse, when moderate Muslim Governor Salman Taseer of Punjab and
minority minister Shahbaz Bhatti [the only Christian in the country’s
cabinet] were murdered in 2011 after speaking in support of Bibi and
calling for the reform of Pakistan’s blasphemy law.
Street
protests escalated when news was released that Mumtaz Qadri, the
bodyguard of Salman Taseer, was executed by hanging on February 29,
2016, for murdering his boss. Crowds rushed onto the streets of many of
Pakistan’s main cities to call for the blasphemy laws not to be changed,
and then a “shrine” to Qadri was quickly erected on the edge of
Islamabad.
Fears
began to grow over the security of Ms. Bibi, the first Christian woman
in Pakistan sentenced to death for “blasphemy” following the execution
of Qadri.
A
senior Punjab government official confided to the Pakistan
correspondent of Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org) that Ms.
Bibi’s security had been ‘beefed up’ following intelligence reports
that Islamist groups were conspiring to get her killed inside prison to
avenge the hanging of Qadri. [Taseer had called the country’s
controversial blasphemy statute “a black law” and demanded freedom for
the Christian mother of two children and stepmother to three others.]
Speaking
on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to
media, the senior government source said that there was already a bounty
on Asia Bibi’s head of approximately 50 million rupees (US$$471,000),
and that now that Islamist groups were calling for her swift execution,
the government was exercising extreme caution to protect her.
“The government is doing its best to keep Asia Bibi safe,” the official said.
Now the Christians are watching and praying to see if the government is able to do just that!
Photo
captions: 1) Asia Bibi. 2) Supporters of Mumtaz Qadri take to the
streets. 3) Mumtaz Qadri after his arrest. 4) Dan Wooding with his award
from the BPCA.
About
the writer: Dan Wooding, 75, is an award-winning winning author,
broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary
parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma,
to whom he has been married for more than 52 years. They have two sons,
Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan is
the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints
in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS), and is also the
author of some 45 books, the latest of which is Mary, My Story from
Bethlehem to Calvary (http://marythebook.com).
He has received a special award from the British Pakistan Christian
Association for his reporting on persecution of Christians in Pakistan.
** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net).
ISTANBUL, TURKEY (ANS – April 15, 2016)
-- Turkish authorities have released a U.S. evangelist, David Byle, who
was detained last week and ordered to be deported, sources said.
Byle
is part of a small number of Christians in Turkey, and an even smaller
number of expatriate Christians, who openly evangelize in the country. A
ministry leader at U.S.-based International Christian Response (ICR),
which provides aid to persecuted Christians, said Byle lives in a
sacrificial way totally immersed in his mission.
Morning
Star News said that if a court grants a temporary injunction against
the deportation order, Byle will be thrown into a legal battle on three
fronts, his attorney said. The first battle will be against the
deportation. The second battle, over the detention order, has been won
for now. The last will be against the reentry ban. If the court refuses
to grant the injunction, and if the reentry ban remains, Byle will be
forced to leave Turkey, and his wife and five children will eventually
be forced to follow.
About
the writer: Dan Wooding, 75, is an award-winning winning author,
broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary
parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma,
to whom he has been married for more than 52 years. They have two sons,
Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan is
the founder of the ASSIST News Service (ANS), and the author of some 45
books. He also has two TV shows – “Windows on the World,” (with Mark
Ellis), and “Inside Hollywood with Dan Wooding,” which are both
broadcast on the Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network (
