Asia Bibi flown to secret location after being freed from jail after eight years on death row for blasphemy
A Christian woman spared the death sentence after her blasphemy conviction was quashed has finally been freed from prison and taken to a secure hiding place in Pakistan, officials have said.
Asia Bibi was flown from her jail in Punjab province to an unknown location, prompting speculation she was already en route to claim asylum in Europe.
Fearful of a repeat of widespread protests by religious hardliners which paralysed the country after her acquittal last week, the government immediately stressed she remained inside Pakistan.
A British Christian charity in touch with the mother-of-five's family also said on Thursday that they remained in danger.
Mrs Bibi's husband has appealed to a series of countries including the UK to grant his family asylum and European Parliament President Antonio Tajani has invited her and her family to Europe. Matteo Salvini, Italy's interior minister and deputy prime minister, has stressed he will do he would do "all that is humanly possible" to ensure Mrs Bibi and her family are safe.
News that the 53-year-old Catholic farmworker had been freed and flown from Multan to an airport outside Islamabad sparked immediate anger from hardline religious parties.
A spokesman for the hard-line Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party, which took to the streets after the Supreme Court ruling, said her release violated a deal with the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to end the protests.
Under the deal, the TLP said it had been assured she would stay in the country until the supreme court had heard a petition protesting the decision to acquit her.
The information minister acknowledged the issue was highly sensitive and said speculation Mrs Bibi had been spirited out of the country was “extremely irresponsible”.
The British Pakistani Christian Association which is in touch with the family, said that Mrs Bibi and her family “all still face a real and present danger of being killed”.
Wilson Chowdhry of the association said: ”News of Asia's release today bring great elation and joy to the Christian community of Pakistan and their diaspora across the world.
He went on: “If you told me two years ago that Asia Bibi would one day be set free, I would have told you it was not humanly possible.”
Mrs Bibi spent nearly eight years on death row after being wrongly convicted of defaming the Prophet Mohammed in a row with fellow farmworkers. She had always denied blasphemy and said she the accusation was malicious.
On Thursday the Netherlands offered temporary shelter to her lawyer, Saiful Mulook, who fled Pakistan at the weekend.
