Islamabad: A blasphemy case has been registered against two Christian nurses in Pakistan’s Faisalabad after they were accused by a Muslim co-worker of desecrating wall hangings containing Quranic verses inside a hospital ward. Scores of staff at Faisalabad Civil Hospital staged a protest against the Christian nurses, identified as Mariyum Lal and Newsh Arooj, while alleging that both had committed blasphemy. Among the protesters were clerics demanding strict punishment to the duo.
Sources said Lal and Arooj had been directed by a senior, Rukhsana, to remove old wall hangings and stickers from the psychiatric ward. Rukhsana, according to the sources, held a grudge against Lal and allegedly provoked other Muslim staffers by claiming that wall hangings bearing Quranic verses had been desecrated. A pharmacy worker attacked Lal with a knife just as she was attending to a patient. She survived the attack with minor injuries to her arm. The hospital administration called the police, who took the nurses into protective custody. The police later registered an FIR in connection with the blasphemy. In Pakistan, false accusations of blasphemy are common and often motivated by personal vendetta.
