Pakistan: 3 women kill man booked for blasphemy case 13 years ago

Lahore: Three burqa-clad sisters in Pakistan's Punjab province allegedly shot dead a 50-year-old man who was a suspect in a 13-year-old blasphemy case.

The incident took place yesterday in Nangal Mirza village, Pasrur tehsil, some 180km from Lahore. According to police, three veiled women, who are sisters - Afshan, Anma and Razia - came to the house of faith healer Mazhar Hussain Syed to take his blessings for resolution of their problems.

"The women, after taking his blessings, asked him to call his son Fazal Abbas, who recently returned from Belgium, as one of them remained his student and wanted to see him.

As soon as Abbas entered the room they opened fire on him, killing him on the spot," Station House Officer (Pesrur) Saeed Hinjra said, adding the women had hid pistols under their burqa.

"We have arrested all three women who told police that they had killed a blasphemer. They had no regret over it. One of the women remained student of the victim some 13 years ago when he allegedly committed blasphemy," Hinjra said.

The SHO said police were interrogating the women whether there was some other motive behind Abbas' killing. It seems surprising that how come three sisters had taken this extreme step on the issue which was 13 years old. We are also investigating the role of some local clerics, Hinjra said.

The women reportedly had raised slogans in jubilation after killing Abbas saying "We have eliminated a blasphemer". "We couldn't kill Abbas 13 years ago because we were too young then," the SHO quoted one of the suspects.

He said Abbas was booked in 2004 under blasphemy section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code, better known as the Blasphemy Law. Abbas had left for Belgium to avoid the wrath of the local clerics.

The suspect had recently returned from abroad and obtained pre-arrest bail from a local court in the blasphemy case.