Fake images of Bibi fuel hostility in Pakistan

Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Monday slammed fake images showing Asia Bibi, a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy charges, outside the country. The Supreme Court of Pakistan last month overturned her 2010 death sentence, saying prosecutors failed to prove she violated the Pakistani law prohibiting blasphemy against the state religion of Islam. Islamists staged mass protests calling for her death and filed a petition challenging her acquittal. One of the images in circulation on social media showed Bibi meeting with Pope Francis. The photo in reality was an edited image of a 2016 meeting between her daughter and the pope over Bibi’s detention.

Chaudhry said the images have already resulted in death threats against a lawmaker who appeared in one of the photos. “People can be killed because of such fake postings,” Chaudhry said. Last week authorities moved Bibi to a secret guarded location in Islamabad, where she will likely remain until the process of reviewing her acquittal is complete.