Six months since Christian Asia Bibi fled Pakistan, after being imprisoned for ten years on blasphemy charges, reports highlight the plight of others accused of blasphemy in the country.
The reports come from multiple sources including the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCRIF) and Humanists International.
The USCIRF reports there are 80 people in Pakistan imprisoned on blasphemy charges.
The latest Freedom of Thought report from Humanists International says Pakistan remains a "perennial offender" in imprisoning people for blasphemy - long after the country's Supreme Court discredited the high-profile case against Asia Bibi.
According to the report: "The authorities prosecuted a total of 1,170 blasphemy cases between 1987 and 2012, with scores of new cases every year. Civil society reports estimate that in 2017 alone at least 50 individuals were imprisoned on charges of blasphemy, with at least 17 facing possible death sentences."
Andrew Boyd from Release International, a charity supporting persecuted Christians told Premier: "Whether you're found guilty or acquitted as Asia Bibi was, it is effectively a death sentence [being accused of blasphemy], there's a number of different forms of it. It could be blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed, it could be something that is said against Muhammad, or it could be disrespecting the Quran."
More than 70 people have been murdered following blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to Al Jazeera. [PREMIER CHRISTIAN RADIO] Read more
