A Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy was allegedly tortured by a staffer of the jail in Punjab province where she is being held, according to a media report on Wednesday.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has claimed that foolproof security was provided to slain Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, and that his death was the result of his own negligence. Bhatti was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Islamabad on Wednesday for championing the case of Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was sentenced to death last November for allegedly committing blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad.
Blasphemy furore hit Pakistan again as two Christian women were beaten and publicly humiliated by an angry mob in Lahore apparently over allegations of frivolous religious sacrilege.
Over 25,000 protesters had entered and besieged Islamabad's high-security zone on Sunday, damaging public buildings and breaking barriers that had been erected.
In a case of honour killing, a man allegedly stoned to death his sister for having an affair with a youth in Punjab province of Pakistan, where about 860 women became victim of such crime last year.
Khadim Hussain Rizvi is now gone. But the mass appeal of fundamentalism among Pakistan's burgeoning, young, illiterate, unemployed and angry population isn't, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Pakistan's former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday said he had spoken to his son Ali Haider for the first time since he was kidnapped by a Taliban group in 2013 and is now being held in Afghanistan.
Bibi was convicted in 2010 after being accused of insulting Islam in a row with her neighbours. She always maintained her innocence, but has spent most of the past eight years in solitary confinement.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances