Rimsha Masih, accused of desecrating Qur'an, leaves custody via armoured vehicle and helicopter after being granted bail

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

A Pakistani Christian girl accused of desecrating the Qur'an has been freed from a jail near Islamabad, an official said.

The release of Rimsha Masih, the 14-year-old accused by a neighbour of committing an act of blasphemy last month, comes a day after a judge granted her bail.

Mushtaq Awan said the girl left the prison in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the Pakistani capital, on Saturday afternoon.

Rimsha has been held for a little over three weeks. An Associated Press reporter on the scene said she was taken from the prison in an armoured vehicle and driven to a waiting helicopter while covered with a sheet to protect her identity.

Her lawyers say they will now push to have the case against her thrown out entirely.

The teenager, who her defenders say is mentally disabled, became the first person ever accused of blasphemy to win bail, in large part due to the extraordinary turn of events in the case.

Earlier this week witnesses came forward alleging she had been framed by the head of the local mosque in the impoverished neighbourhood where a Christian minority live. The mullah was accused by his own deputies of adding pages torn from the Qur'an to a plastic bag of burned rubbish that Rimsha had been seen carrying near her home on 16 August.

Residents said the bag contained charred sacred texts from the Qur'an. It is alleged the mullah, Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, then added additional pages from the Qur'an in order to strengthen the evidence against her.

People living in the neighbourhood of Mehrabadi said Chishti helped to whip up anti-Christian sentiment in the town and then publicly welcomed the mass departure of hundreds of Christians who fled to other parts of Islamabad.

Individuals accused of blasphemy have been killed by vigilante groups in the past, including one case last year when a mob descended on a police station in Punjab, pulled out a suspect in a case and burned him in the street.