Blasphemy allegations have fatal consequences in Pakistan, yet some are risking their lives to press for reform.
In Pakistan, it is illegal to make derogatory comments about Prophet Muhammad or desecrate the Quran.
Anyone accused is usually arrested and jailed, sometimes for years, before their case is overturned or sentence reduced by the appeal courts.
Such is the strength of feeling about blasphemy that the mere rumour of an allegation is enough to set the neighbourhood or village against the accused, increasingly with fatal consequences. In some instances, it is not just the accused, but their entire community who are held responsible and threatened.
On wasteland on the outskirts of Islamabad we meet families who have fled their homes in the city’s Mehrabadi district.
Despite the winter cold, they live in makeshift tents because they are too scarred to return to Mehrabadi, after a member of their Christian community, 14-year-old Rimsha Masih, was accused of blasphemy last year.
Fifty two of the accused and their supporters have been murdered in the last two decades. Even in police custody blasphemy suspects are not safe.
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