A Christian girl accused of defaming the Koran in Pakistan is released on bail, plucked from a prison yard by a military helicopter and flown to a secret location.
Live broadcasts on local television channels showed heavily-armed police surrounding Rimsha Masih, a girl believed to be about 14 years old who was accused of burning pages from the Koran in a pile of trash.
A judge granted her bail on Friday and a government minister said an application was being made to have charges against her dismissed.
The lawyer prosecuting Masih has suggested she could be lynched if she is found not guilty and set free.
After Masih’s arrest last month accusations emerged that she had been framed by a local cleric eager to expel Christian families living in the slum where she lived.
Blasphemy charges are frequently followed by deadly riots against minority communities. Christians, who make up four percent of Pakistan’s population of 180 million, have been especially concerned about the blasphemy law, saying it offers them no protection.
Despite international condemnation, the blasphemy law still has widespread support among ordinary Pakistanis.
Two high-ranking government officials who previously suggested reform of the blasphemy law have been shot dead, one by his own bodyguard, last year.
The number of cases brought under the law is rising steeply and rights groups fear it is mostly being used to settle personal vendettas.
Since 1987 there have been almost 250 blasphemy cases, according to Pakistani think tank the Centre for Research and Security Studies.
The same report said since 1990, 52 people had been lynched or killed after being accused of blasphemy.