Author:
Publication: Sify News
Date: September 3, 2005
URL: http://headlines.sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13931928&headline=Hindu~couple~held~for~desecrating~Quran
Pakistani police have arrested a
Hindu couple accused of desecrating the Quran, Islam's holy book, the police
said on Saturday.
The couple was arrested on Friday
in Sawabi, a deeply conservative town in northwestern Pakistan, after residents
told the police they had thrown pages from the Quran around a field.
If convicted, they could face a
death sentence. "Yes, a Hindu husband and wife are in our custody and we
are interrogating them to determine whether they desecrated the Quran,"
local police official Sajjad Khan said, without giving further details.
Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All
Pakistan Minorities' Alliance, called the allegations against the couple
"a pack of lies" and said they had been falsely accused.
He also asked the government to
set up a judicial commission to probe the case.
Bhatti's organisation works to protect
minority groups in Muslim-majority Pakistan and has been critical of blasphemy
laws, which he says are often applied against minorities. Under the laws,
people accused of insulting Islam, the prophet Mohammed or the Quran can
be sentenced to death.
