Christians from Indian Punjab march for Asia Bibi on the border with Pakistan

(February 22, 2011) CHundreds of Indian activists of the Christian Front Punjab (Cfp), held a protest and hunger strike in Attari town on the Indo-Pakistani border, to demonstrate against the death penalty decreed for Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian accused of blasphemy . The members of Cfp have asked the Pakistani government to withdraw the sentence, and called on the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to abolish the law. The President of Cfp, Lawarance Chaudhary, handed over a memorandum to the local authorities, to be sent to the High Commission of Pakistan. The document calls on the Pakistani president and the justice minister, to reconsider the situation of Asia Bibi, who was accused and convicted, due to the pressure of powerful local leaders.
Church of North India Bishop P.K. Samantaroy of Amritsar, has called for the abolition of the blasphemy law. He told AsiaNews: "The blasphemy law is used methodically to resolve personal questions, and other issues”. He said “We, the Church of North India, campaigned for this infamous blasphemy law to be eradicated, and that is why we participated in the demonstration at Attari. We have raised this argument with various Christian institutions throughout the world, to campaign for Asia Bibi, and to put pressure on the Pakistani government to abolish the law," the Bishop added.