By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service
MULTAN, PAKISTAN (ANS – July 26, 2015)
-- Sardar Mushtaq Gill, a Pakistan Human Rights Defender and Advocate
in the Pakistan High Court, has told the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
that he was not allowed to visit Asia Bibi, 50, the courageous
Christian mother-of-five who recently had her death sentence “stayed”
and who is confined to the Multan Women’s Prison Death Cell.
Bibi was convicted of blasphemy
in November 2010 for telling fellow workers on a berry farm, “Our
Christ sacrificed His life on the cross for our sins,” and “Our Christ
is alive.”
She recently was granted leave to appeal her death sentence by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Lahore.
Gill, a law graduate from Lahore Punjab University, and Chief Counsel of Legal Evangelical Association Development (LEAD) (http://leadfamily.blogspot.com),
says he has been deeply involved in Bibi’s long-running case, and had
gone to the prison today (July 25, 2015) to check on her worrying health
condition, but claimed that prison officials wouldn’t allow him in to
see her.
Gill
said he was aware that Asia Bibi is suffering from intestinal bleeding,
and her health problems are “only getting worse and she is in dire need
of medical attention”, so he wanted to check on how she was now doing,
but was banned.
LEAD has also started a
petition calling for Bibi's release because the case has created a sense
of insecurity among the Christian community, particularly among
Christians working women.
“It also requested for prayers
and it urged to international community to lobby the Pakistani
government for her release and prayers requests are sent to
international community for Asia's release and our support,” said a
spokesperson for LEAD.
Photo captions: 1) Asia Bibi with her husband and two of her children. 2) Sardar Mushtaq Gill. 3) Dan Wooding.
About
the writer: Dan Wooding, 74, is an award-winning author, broadcaster
and journalist, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents,
and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he
has been married for 52 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter,
and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the author of some
45 books and has radio and TV programs based in Orange County,
California. He has reported from all over the world for ANS.
** You may republish this and any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
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