Pak ‘blasphemy school’ teacher denied bail

LAHORE: A Pakistani court yesterday refused bail to the head teacher of a school caught in a blasphemy row.
Asim Farooqi, 77, was remanded in custody for 14 days on charges of blasphemy — which can attract the death penalty — despite arguing he had no direct part in the case.
One of his teachers, Arfa Iftikhar, was forced into hiding after a furious mob stormed Farooqi Girls’ High School in the eastern city of Lahore over a piece of homework she set.
“The bail petition is dismissed,” Judge Anjum Raza announced after hearing arguments from Farooqi’s lawyer. The lawyer, Jawad Ashraf, had asked for bail on the grounds the head teacher had no role in the incident.
“The principal of the school can only be held responsible for negligence and has no direct role in the blasphemy incident, he should be released,” he told the court.
About 10 clerics from local mosques gathered at the court to oppose the head teacher’s release.
But at the same time around 2,000 students, parents and teachers gathered at the school to demand its reopening, carrying placards and chanting slogans which included: “Release our principal.”
Separately, a Taleban suicide bomber blew himself up near a vehicle carrying the regional head of a government-allied militia in northwest Pakistan yesterday, killing him and five others, police and the militant group said.
Senior police officer Akhtar Hayyat said several people were also wounded in the blast near a gas station in the district of Buner in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He said Fateh Khan, the head of the local anti-Taleban militia, was killed along with three guards and two passers-by.
Khan was also a prominent leader of Awami National Party, which rules the coalition government in the province, and which has angered the Taleban by supporting several military offensives in tribal districts and in the towns.
Shortly after the attack, Taleban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility by telephone for the killing of Khan.
Buner is believed to be a hiding place for the Pakistani Taleban. It is located near the Swat Valley, where the insurgent group shot and wounded 15-year-old education activist Malala Yousufzai last month for criticizing its behavior when it seized the isolated region in 2008.
An offensive by the military broke the Taleban’s control over the area in 2009, but attacks have continued.