The case of a Christian girl accused of blasphemy in Pakistan took a dramatic turn on Saturday night when local cleric Khalid Jadoon was arrested for fabricating evidence against the minor.
Fellow cleric Hafiz Muhammad Zubair, who told police about Jadoon’s plan, said his conscience did
not allow him to let a “14-year-old be sentenced to death for no crime of her own”.
The girl has been in custody since she was arrested more than two weeks ago after being accused of burning papers containing verses from the Quran. According to medical reports, she has Down Syndrome.
“Witnesses complained that Jadoon had torn pages from a Quran and placed them in her bag,” police official Munir Hussain Jafri said. On Sunday, Jadoon was sent to jail on a 14-day judicial remand.
Zubair told the police he saw people handing burnt pages to Jadoon, who added additional pages of the Quran to the pile. Jadoon told Zubair he was doing so to “strengthen their case”.