Christian girl held by police over suspected blasphemy

Pakistani authorities arrested a Christian girl and are investigating whether she violated the country’s strict blasphemy laws after furious neighbours surrounded her house, a police officer said yesterday.

The arrest of the girl and outrage among the local community demonstrates the deep emotion that suspected blasphemy cases can evoke in the conservative Muslim country, where rising extremism often means religious minorities live in fear of persecution.

In Pakistan, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, or holy book, the Quran, can be sentenced to death, although they are rarely, if ever, executed.