A teacher at an all-girls religious school in Pakistan has been allegedly killed by a female colleague and two students who accused her of blasphemy, police say – the latest murder in the country related to the hugely sensitive issue.
Few issues in Pakistan are as galvanising as blasphemy, and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests and incite lynchings.
The latest incident took place on Tuesday in Dera Ismail Khan in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.
Police said two students and a teacher ambushed Safoora Bibi at the main gate of the school and attacked her with a knife and stick.
“She died after her throat was slit,” police official Saghir Ahmed told AFP news agency.
The main suspect is a colleague who planned the crime with two nieces studying at the Jamia Islamia Falahul Binaat school, police said.
The girls told police a relative had dreamed the dead woman “had committed blasphemy” against the Prophet Muhammad, officers said, adding they were also investigating if the main suspect, Umra Aman, had a personal grudge.
Azeem Khan, another police official, confirmed the details.
Known as madrassas, religious schools have long served as vital lifelines for millions of impoverished children in Pakistan, where social services are chronically underfunded.
But critics say students can be “brainwashed by hardline clerics” who prize rote learning of the Quran over subjects such as maths and science.
Rights groups say Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are often wielded to settle personal vendettas.
Last year, a Sri Lankan factory manager working in Pakistan was beaten to death and set ablaze by a mob after being accused of blasphemy.
The Centre for Social Justice – an independent group advocating for the rights of minorities – says at least 84 people were accused of committing blasphemy last year.
Since 1990, at least 82 people have been murdered over alleged blasphemy in Pakistan, according to an Al Jazeera tally. Five of those killings took place last year alone, including mobs stoning and burning victims to death.
