Posted on 03/04/2024 7:25:48 PM PST by grundle
Officials say Sheher Bano, an assistant superintendent of police in Lahore, risked her life to rescue the woman after Arabic calligraphy on her outfit was mistaken for verses from the Quran.
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.
“My first and immediate responsibility was to instantly shift the woman from there,” Bano told NBC News in a phone interview on Friday. She said she tried shielding the woman, who sat panicking in a corner as the angry mob grew outside.
“This woman has disrespected the Quran,” a man is heard telling a police officer in a widely circulated video on social media.
In a video posted Monday on Facebook by Punjab Police, Bano can be seen pleading with the crowd.
“Since a year I’ve been serving this area as the ASP,” she said, referring to her title as assistant superintendent of police. “You should be able to trust us.”
Bano then went back inside the restaurant, covering the woman in a head-to-toe black robe and golden headscarf before pulling her out. She pushed through the crowd surrounded by police officers, trying to get the woman to safety.
The woman was moved to a police station, Bano said, as mobs began forming around different police stations in the area. Officials then brought in local scholars and clerics, including some who had been in the angry crowd.
They looked at the calligraphy on the dress and concluded it did not contain any Quranic verses, apologizing for their misunderstanding.
Bano said the dress was instead printed with the Arabic word “helwa,” which means beautiful.
The woman wearing the kurta apologized in a video later posted on Facebook by Lahore Police.
“It was not intentional and happened by mistake,” she said. “I just bought this kurta thinking it was a design.”
“I still apologize,” she said, adding that she is a devout Muslim and would never commit blasphemy.
Blasphemy was codified in law under British colonial rule and later expanded by the Pakistani government. Officials are under pressure to change the laws, which rights groups say are often used to intimidate the country’s religious minorities.
Last year, a man suspected of blasphemy was pulled from his cell at a police station in Punjab province and lynched outside by an angry mob.
At least 56 people remained in police custody over blasphemy allegations as of December 2023, according to a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
I believe I saw the video of this, and she really had some
courage to do what she did. The woman was about to be
stoned, and this woman walked right into the midst of the
crowd and escorted her out.
So apparently there are many Pakistanis who are completely illiterate. On top of everything else.
They see writing, someone tells them its from the Koran, they immediately believe it.
Which just shows mooselimbs for the con artists they truly are.
Pakistanis are among the worst human beings on the planet, IMHO.
Pakistanis are among the worst human beings on the planet, IMHO.
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Sure... except for all the rest.
Romans 3:9 “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”
Most Mohammedans cannot read Arabic. In Pakistan, that is nearly all mohammedans including mullahs. They memorize it but just the sounds of the Quran recital. They are discouraged from trying to understand it.
Try reading the Quran and you’ll see why, it is a very disjointed set of verses put together by length of chapter, not chronologically
“ Sure... except for all the rest.”
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I see you’ve positioned yourself as a defender of the Pakistanis and Chinese. Just an observation from your recent posts.
These chumps are always angry about something, everything.
And how much of our sensitive computer data is given to ignorant animals like this to work with, so U.S. companies can save a few bucks in salary?
I would say that you’ve created an interesting diversion from what was meant to be a fairly plain reading of a well known passage of scripture.
When Luke says in chapter 13 verse 3 that “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”, does that word ‘all’ apply to some ethnicities and cultures more than others?
You can quote scripture all you want… it doesn’t change the FACT that the Pakistanis are a particularly nasty and loathsome people. Perhaps you should go to Pakistan on a proselytizing mission trip. You would likely find that enlightening.
Pakli’s are like Nigerians either the salt of the Earth or the scum of the Earth. Except they don’t have any salt part
...and your response doesn’t change the fact that every person on the planet has only one way to get themselves right with God. In that regard, there is no difference between people who live in Pakistan or America or anywhere else.....the path to peace with God is identical.
Yes. And few in Pakistan are on or ever will be on that path. They remain among the most vile humans on this planet. Perhaps you can change that FACT by going on a proselytizing mission trip to Pakistan.
I wouldn’t bet on the success of your trip nor on you returning alive and uninjured from that trip.
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