Police officer in Pakistan is praised for saving woman accused of blasphemy by angry mob
A police officer in Pakistan is being hailed as a hero after she protected a woman from a furious mob accusing her of blasphemy over what she was wearing.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A police officer in Pakistan is being hailed as a hero after she protected a woman from a furious mob accusing her of blasphemy over what she was wearing.
Sheher Bano, an assistant superintendent of police in the city of Lahore, “put her life in danger” to rescue the woman after colorful Arabic calligraphy on her outfit was mistaken for verses from the Quran, the Muslim holy book, said Usman Anwar, police inspector general of Punjab province.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where it is punishable by death. Accusations have led to violent assaults, detentions and mob lynchings.
In a ceremony in Rawalpindi on Wednesday, Bano received Pakistan’s highest honor in law enforcement from the country’s military, which called her “fearless.”
Police first received a call last Sunday afternoon that a crowd of dozens had gathered outside a restaurant in a busy shopping area of Lahore. The crowd accused the unnamed woman of committing blasphemy with her kurta, a long loose garment that resembles a collarless shirt, and demanded that she remove it.
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