When will Pakistani Christian girl be released?

When will Rimsha be released?
ICC Note:
Rimsha Masih, an 11 year old girl, was arrested for allegedly burning the Quran in Islamabad on August 16. Despite the arrest of a local imam yesterday for allegedly setting the girl up by placing burned Islamic texts in a bag that Rimsha was carrying to the garbage, Rimsha still lingers in prison and is scheduled to reappear in court later this week. In this article, The Express Tribune reports on the abuse suffered by religious minorities under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws while asking the question, “When will Rimsha be released?” The same question is being asked by Christians and human rights advocates around the world. Please continue to pray for the immediate release and safety of Rimsha and her family.
By Editorial
09/04/2012 Pakistan (The Express Tribune)- A 12-year-old daughter of Pakistan, Rimsha Masih, is in jail without bail for burning pages of Quranic verses even after the police found she was victimised through a trumped-up charge by a local cleric determined to oust the Christian community from the village of Mehrabad, near Islamabad. She suffers from Downs’s syndrome and may not understand why she is being maltreated. Even after the discovery that the cleric was indulging in a criminal plot against the Christian community, she has not been allowed to return home on bail.
…
The shock administered by this case of blasphemy has been felt inside Pakistan. It has deepened the despair the outside world feels about our country; and the Christian Church is once again appealing to do something about a law that, as now proved beyond all doubt, is causing harm to Pakistan and its reputation.
This happened on August 16, on the 27th of Ramazan, thus further raising suspicions as to when Rimsha was put in confinement. A few days ago, even after a witness alerted the authorities that the cleric had cooked up the story of burning the Holy Quran by putting scarred pages in a bag that Rimsha was carrying, the police have still not released her. The judiciary is silent so far but the Supreme Court should take suo-motu notice and get the girl placed in a better environment which her age, her health and her innocence deserve.
What people have always said about the law and are still saying is this: “In blasphemy cases, the state institutions just try to defuse the pressure of accusers by registering a case against the accused”. Both the police and the judiciary take the side of the accuser. During the last two decades or so, more than 1,000 cases of blasphemy have been registered and it is believed that a vast majority of these cases were fake. Not even a single accuser in these fake cases has been convicted, implying that the state patronises the accusers at some level.
Laws are usually made after criminal acts are observed in society. In this case, criminal acts have followed the enforcement of the law. The victimisation follows a familiar pattern. In February 1997, the twin villages of Shantinagar-Tibba Colony, 12 kilometres east of Khanewal, in Multan division, were looted and burnt by 20,000 Muslim citizens and 500 policemen. The police first evacuated the Christian population of 15,000, then helped the raiders use battlefield explosives to blow up their houses and property.
…
[Full Story]
Want to make a difference in this story? You can sign ICC’s petition calling for the immediate release and safekeeping of Rimsha today! Lend your voice by clicking here.