Three teachers from an Islamic school in Pakistan beheaded a woman accused of blasphemy

Three teachers from an Islamic girls' school in Pakistan beheaded a former co-worker on Tuesday after being accused of blaspheming the prophet Muhammad by a girl, who claimed that the alleged offense was revealed to her in a dream, police sources revealed to the EFE agency.

The 24-year-old victim was executed without due process in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan, explained local police chief Najamul Hasnain.

The three teachers, belonging to the same family, told the police after their arrest that the blasphemy was revealed to them by a 13-year-old girl with whom they are related.

“In their statement, the three women said that the girl with whom they are related saw in her dreams that Safora Bibi committed blasphemy against the prophet, so they killed her,” Sagheer Gilani, a senior police official from the city of Dera Ismail Khan, told EFE Sagheer Gilani.

The source explained that Bibi, 24 years old, arrived at the madrasa or Koranic school where she worked around 7.30 am local time (2.30 GMT), where she met the three women, who also work as teachers in another religious institution in the area.

The detainees, aged 24, 21 and 17, murdered the victim after an argument, Gilani added. “The police are investigating (what happened) from every angle, because people use accusations of blasphemy as a tool to escape justice,” he concluded.

All those involved in this crime are from Waziristan, a remote region on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, which has served as a scene of radicalization and hiding place on multiple occasions for terrorist groups.

The Pakistani Penal Code still contains archaic laws punishing with penalties ranging from financial fines to death for alleged crimes of blasphemy committed against Islam or the Prophet Mohammed. Human Rights Organizations have denounced that the norm has also become a common tool to settle personal care and vengeance.

While it is up to the competent authorities to carry out the punitive measures against the alleged blasphemers, in recent years, and in the face of the passivity of those responsible, more than 70 people have been killed by angry mobs before their trials have even taken place.

Last February, a violent mob lynched a man, who his relatives claimed was suffering from a mental disorder, whom the attackers accused of blasphemy after allegedly burning some pages of the Koran in eastern Pakistan.

Last December, a violent mob lynched and set fire to the body of a man of Sri Lankan origin in the Pakistani city of Sialkot, in the northeastern part of the country, allegedly for committing blasphemy. This action provoked the condemnation of international agencies and the Government of Sri Lanka.

(With information from EFE and EuropaPress)

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