Asia Bibi’s cell now holds another Christian woman on death row for blasphemy

While Asia Bibi is free, another Christian woman faces the same fate as her, sentenced to death for alleged blasaphemy.

Bibi’s lawyer, Saif-ul Malook, has taken up the case of Shagufta Kausar, a 45-year-old mother of four, and her husband.

Kausar is locked in the same prison cell in Multan Women’s Jail where Bibi had been incarcerated for many years. Kausar and her husband Shafqat Masih, 48, were condemned to death by a trial court in February 2014. Muhammad Hussein, a prayer leader at a local mosque, accused Masih of texting blasphemous text messages from Kausar’s cell phone with her “connivance.”

The people of the area surrounded the Gojra Police Station after Kausar and Masih were arrested. The mob demanded that the couple be handed to them so that they could be killed. The police resorted to including the harshest charges in order to disperse the protestors.

The Christian couple hails from the infamous town of Gojra, where in 2009 more than 100 houses were set on fire and 7 Christians killed by a violent mob over blasphemy allegations. Since then, tensions between Christians and Muslims have regularly flared.