LAHORE, Feb 26 (Afghanistan Women’s News Agency) – A woman in Pakistan was targeted due to an Arabic inscription on her clothing mistaken as a verse from the Quran, causing harassment from an angry mob, from which she was rescued by timely police intervention.
This incident took place on Sunday, February 25th, in the Ichra area of Lahore, the capital of Punjab state in Pakistan. Informed sources report that this woman, accompanied by her husband, had come to the market for shopping when they were confronted by a group of angry men.
The writings on this woman’s clothing were in Arabic, and the enraged individuals mistook those inscriptions for Quranic verses, interpreting her actions as blasphemous and insulting to sacred beliefs. The punishment for blasphemy in Pakistan is death, sometimes carried out by the people.
In a video of this event, a police officer named Syeda Shahbano Naqvi is seen reasoning with and addressing the protesting crowd to maintain order, following which she safely escorts the woman to a secure location.
The video of this incident has been widely shared and gone viral on social media platforms in Pakistan. The word “holwa,” meaning sweet in Arabic script, was printed on the woman’s clothing.
The Pakistan police informed the media that they received a call for the first time around 10:13 local time in Punjab on Monday, reporting that an angry crowd had gathered around a woman in a restaurant in Lahore, demanding to harm her. According to the police, about 300 people had gathered around the restaurant.
In the circulated videos of this event, the woman can be seen sitting fearfully next to a wall, covering her face with her hands. In another video, police officers create a distance between this woman and the angry crowd.
The police transferred this woman to a police station, where some religious scholars of the country confirmed that the inscriptions on the woman’s kurta were not Quranic verses but rather an ordinary Arabic word meaning sweet. The police then requested the scholars to take a video confirming their findings of the woman’s innocence. The woman has publicly apologized for the occurrence of this event.
The Pakistan police stated that they have requested the highest police medal, the Qaeed Azam Police Medal (QPM), to be awarded to Syeda Shahbano Naqvi, the female police officer who bravely and persuasively stood against the angry men and saved the woman’s life.
- نویسنده : Afghanistan Women News Agency
- منبع خبر : Afghanistan Women News Agency
