Two Christian nurses were rescued by police-men from an enraged mob after being accused of blasphemy by their hospital’s staff in Pakistan.
Staff nurse Mariam Lal and student nurse Newish Urooj were detained by police after a first information report (FIR) under section 295-B of the blasphemy law was made by Dr. Mirza Muhammad Ali of Civil Hospital, Faisalabad.
“Labbayk ya Rasool-Allah [Here I am at your service, O Messenger of Allah]” and “Be-heading the only punishment for blasphemer” chanted protesters gathered on April 9 in the emergency department of Civil Hospital. One of them kicked Lal as she entered a police van.
Muhammad Waqas, a ward boy in the hospital, confessed to wounding Lal in a knife attack.
“That filthy daughter of a bitch, a Christian staff, tore away a sticker inscribed with Durood Shareef [a salutation for Prophet Muhammad] from the cupboard,” he said during a meeting with hospital officials.
“I asked her why she did it. A Muslim can’t keep quiet against blasphemy to his prophet. You are all Muslims. I attacked her with a knife, wounding her arm. I would have killed her. My life is to serve.”
Section 295-B of the blasphemy law stipulates that defiling a copy of the Quran is punishable by life imprisonment.