Pakistan shuts nursing college after blasphemy scare

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

ISLAMABAD, June 4 (Reuters) A Pakistani nursing school has been shut and seven members of staff suspended after Islamist students protested over allegations blasphemy had been committed at the school, one of its officials said today.

Women religious students from a pro-Taliban mosque protested outside the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences nursing school in the capital late last week after rumours spread that verses from the Koran posted on a wall had been defaced.

But the head of an institute team investigating the issue denied any blasphemy had been committed and said someone was trying to stir up trouble between the school's Muslims and Christians.

''Some invisible hands are trying to stir up the situation, to create disharmony among Muslim and Christian students,'' said the institute official investigating the case, Anwarul Haq.

The school had been shut for 15 days and seven members of staff -- three Christian and four Muslim -- suspended as a preventative measure, he said.

''The teachers were suspended and students were sent on a 15-day holiday just to avoid trouble,'' he said.

Blasphemy, including desecrating the Koran, is a crime punishable by death in Muslim Pakistan although death sentences have never been carried out because convictions have always been turned down by high courts, citing lack of evidence.

Haq said no verses from the Koran had been defaced at the school but someone had used a pen to mark over some religious instructions or prayers posted on walls.

''This will be settled soon. Hopefully, we'll submit our report in a day,'' he said.

The women who protested last Friday came from a hardline Islamabad mosque whose clerics and seminary students have been at odds with authorities over several issues since January.

REUTERS AE DS1615

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