PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A police officer in Pakistan is being hailed as a hero after she protected a woman from a furious mob accusing her of blasphemy over what she was wearing.
Sheher Bano, an assistant superintendent of police in the city of Lahore, “put her life in danger” to rescue the woman after colorful Arabic calligraphy on her outfit was mistaken for verses from the Quran, the Muslim holy book, said Usman Anwar, police inspector general of Punjab province.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where it is punishable by death. Accusations have led to violent assaults, detentions and mob lynchings.
In a ceremony in Rawalpindi on Wednesday, Bano received Pakistan’s highest honor in law enforcement from the country’s military, which called her “fearless.”
Police first received a call last Sunday afternoon that a crowd of dozens had gathered outside a restaurant in a busy shopping area of Lahore. The crowd accused the unnamed woman of committing blasphemy with her kurta, a long loose garment that resembles a collarless shirt, and demanded that she remove it.
“My first and immediate responsibility was to instantly shift the woman from there,” Bano told NBC News in a phone interview on Friday. She said she tried shielding the woman, who sat panicking in a corner as the angry mob grew outside.
“This woman has disrespected the Quran,” a man is heard telling a police officer in a widely circulated video on social media.
In a video posted Monday on Facebook by Punjab Police, Bano can be seen pleading with the crowd.
“Since a year I’ve been serving this area as the ASP,” she said, referring to her title as assistant superintendent of police. “You should be able to trust us.”
Bano then went back inside the restaurant, covering the woman in a head-to-toe black robe and golden headscarf before pulling her out. She pushed through the crowd surrounded by police officers, trying to get the woman to safety.
The woman was…
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