FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2010, file photo, Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman, listens to officials at a prison in Sheikhupura near Lahore, Pakistan. Italy is working to help relocate the family of... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2010, file photo, Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman, listens to officials at a prison in Sheikhupura near Lahore, Pakistan. Italy is working to help relocate the family of a Pakistani Christian woman acquitted eight years after being sentenced to death for blasphemy, amid... (Associated Press) 
 
 ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Christian woman acquitted by Pakistan's Supreme Court eight years after being sentenced to death for blasphemy was flown Wednesday night to a facility in the capital Islamabad from an undisclosed location for security reasons, two senior government officials said. 
 
 Amid tight security, Asia Bibi left a detention facility in Punjab province for the flight to the capital, the officials said. Troops guarded the roads leading to the airport from which she departed, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday as they were not authorized to speak to media on the record. 
 
 Authorities last month said they arrested two prisoners for allegedly conspiring to strangle her and since then additional police and troops have been deployed to the facility in Punjab. Officials said Bibi will be safer at the new facility in Islamabad. 
 
 Bibi's transfer comes a week after the high court in a landmark ruling acquitted Bibi and ordered her released, a move that triggered nationwide protests. Bibi's release was put on hold Friday after authorities held talks with radical Islamists who want her publicly hanged. 
 
 Authorities now say Bibi may not leave the country because a petition for a review of the court's ruling was filed by a radical Islamist lawyer requesting the acquittal be reversed. Pakistani courts usually take years to decide such cases. 
 
 Bibi was arrested in 2009 on charges of insulting Islam's prophet and she was sentenced to death in 2010. Her family has always maintained her innocence and says she never insulted the prophet. 
 
 Blasphemy against Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Tanveer reported from Multan, Pakistan. ||||| Christian labourer has left detention facility but has to stay in Pakistan 
 
 Asia Bibi, the Christian farm labourer whose blasphemy case has triggered violent protests and assassinations in Pakistan, has been freed from jail but remains in protective custody, a week after the country’s supreme court overturned her conviction. 
 
 Officials said that she left a detention facility in the Punjab province amid tight security on Wednesday and was flown to Islamabad, where she was at a secure location because of threats to her life. 
 
 A spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign office said on Thursday that reports Bibi had left the country were false, in a statement backed up by sources close to the family. 
 
 Bibi, who had spent eight years on death row, had been left in limbo after the government struck a deal with religious conservatives to end protests, which erupted after her acquittal. 
 
 Asia Bibi’s husband pleads for family asylum in UK after blasphemy acquittal Read more 
 
 Her husband and children have been living at a secret address in Pakistan in fear of their lives, and have made repeated appeals to the international community to help secure the whole family’s safety. 
 
 “Help us get out of Pakistan. We are extremely worried because our lives are in danger. We no longer have even anything to eat, because we cannot leave the house to buy food,” Ashiq Masih, Bibi’s husband, told Aid to the Church in Need, which campaigns on religious freedom. 
 
 He told the BBC World Service that he had not seen Bibi since her acquittal, and the family was worried about her safety. Religious extremists have threatened to kill her. 
 
 Authorities now say Bibi may not be able to leave the country because a petition for a review of the court’s ruling was filed by a radical Islamist lawyer requesting the acquittal be reversed. Pakistani courts usually take years to decide such cases. 
 
 Bibi’s lawyer, Saiful Mulook, fled Pakistan at the weekend after being issued with death threats, and is seeking asylum in the Netherlands. 
 
 Play Video 0:33 Asia Bibi: protests erupt in Pakistan after blasphemy conviction overturned - video 
 
 Canada, France and Spain were reportedly considering offering asylum to Bibi and her family. Her husband has also appealed to the UK and the US to offer a safe haven. 
 
 In Italy, Matteo Salvini, the hardline anti-migrant interior minister, said he would do “all that is humanly possible” to ensure Bibi and her family were safe, either in Italy or elsewhere. 
 
 Bibi was convicted of blasphemy after a row with Muslim women in her village. Two Pakistani politicians were killed for publicly supporting her and criticising the country’s blasphemy laws. 
 
 The supreme court’s decision last week to overturn the verdict led to violent protests throughout Pakistan and calls for the judges in the case to be killed. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Asia Bibi at a prison in Sheikhupura near Lahore, Pakistan. Photograph: AP 
 
 Imran Khan, Pakistan’s prime minister since July, has been criticised for capitulating to extremists over the case. 
 
 “Khan swept to power earlier this year on promises to restore the rule of law, to champion the oppressed and marginalised and to deliver justice. His party is, after all, called the Movement for Justice,” said Omar Waraich of Amnesty International. 
 
 Khan faces ‘grave difficulties’ as he takes on role of Pakistan PM Read more 
 
 “But what does that even mean when, in the space of just two days, he went from warning the mob against using violence, to bowing to their demands?” 
 
 Khan’s former wife, Jemima Goldsmith, accused him on Twitter of caving in “to extremist demands to bar #AsiaBibi from leaving [Pakistan], after she was acquitted of blasphemy – effectively signing her death warrant”. 
 
 The Religious Liberty Commission, a coalition of organisations campaigning against Christian persecution, have called on Khan to allow Bibi to leave the country. 
 
 “Following her unjust imprisonment and long-awaited release, it is clear that Asia’s life is in danger in Pakistan … As others involved with the case continue to flee the country, we affirm that Asia’s safety is now the responsibility of prime minister Khan,” it said. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Asia Bibi's escape from Pakistan death row 
 
 A Pakistani court has overturned the death sentence of a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy, a case that has polarised the nation. 
 
 Asia Bibi was convicted in 2010 after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a row with her neighbours. 
 
 She always maintained her innocence, but has spent most of the past eight years in solitary confinement. 
 
 The landmark ruling has already set off violent protests by hardliners who support strong blasphemy laws. 
 
 Demonstrations against the verdict are being held in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan. Clashes with police have been reported. 
 
 The Red Zone in the capital Islamabad, where the Supreme Court is located, has been sealed off by police, and paramilitary forces have been deployed to keep protesters away from the court. 
 
 Image copyright ARSHAD ARBAB Image caption Demonstrations have been held in several cities including Peshawar 
 
 Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, who read out the ruling, said Asia Bibi could walk free from jail in Sheikupura, near Lahore, immediately if not wanted in connection with any other case. 
 
 She was not in court to hear the ruling, but reacted to the verdict from prison with apparent disbelief. 
 
 "I can't believe what I am hearing, will I go out now? Will they let me out, really?" AFP news agency quoted her as saying by phone. 
 
 What was Asia Bibi accused of? 
 
 The trial stems from an argument Asia Bibi, whose full name is Asia Noreen, had with a group of women in June 2009. 
 
 They were harvesting fruit when a row broke out about a bucket of water. The women said that because she had used a cup, they could no longer touch it, as her faith had made it unclean. 
 
 Prosecutors alleged that in the row which followed, the women said Asia Bibi should convert to Islam and that she made three offensive comments about the Prophet Muhammad in response. 
 
 She was later beaten up at her home, during which her accusers say she confessed to blasphemy. She was arrested after a police investigation. 
 
 Fallout to continue 
 
 By Secunder Kermani, BBC News, Islamabad 
 
 The court delivered its verdict quickly, no doubt aware of the sensitivity of the case and the danger of a violent reaction to it. 
 
 Asia Bibi's lawyer, closely flanked by a policeman, told me he was "happy" with the verdict, but also afraid for his and his client's safety. 
 
 Even after she is freed, the legacy of her case will continue. Shortly after her conviction a prominent politician, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, was murdered for speaking out in her support and calling for the blasphemy laws to be reformed. 
 
 The killer - Mumtaz Qadri - was executed, but has become a cult hero with a large shrine dedicated to him on the outskirts of Islamabad. 
 
 His supporters also created a political party - campaigning to preserve the blasphemy laws - which gathered around two million votes in this year's general election. 
 
 It's the same party which many fear could be responsible for violent unrest in the coming days. 
 
 What is blasphemy in Pakistan? 
 
 Laws enacted by the British Raj in 1860 made it a crime to disturb a religious assembly, trespass on burial grounds, insult religious beliefs or intentionally destroy or defile a place or an object of worship, punishable by up to 10 years in jail. 
 
 Several more clauses were added in the 1980s by Pakistan's military ruler Gen Zia ul-Haq: 
 
 1980 - up to three years in jail for derogatory remarks against Islamic personages 
 
 1982 - life imprisonment for "wilful" desecration of the Koran 
 
 1986 - "death, or imprisonment for life" for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad 
 
 What did the Supreme Court say? 
 
 The judges said the prosecution had "categorically failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt". 
 
 The case was based on flimsy evidence, they said, and proper procedures had not been followed. The alleged confession was delivered in front of a crowd "threatening to kill her". 
 
 The ruling heavily referenced the Koran and Islamic history. It ended with a quote from the Hadith, the collected sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, which calls for non-Muslims to be treated kindly. 
 
 Why is this case so divisive? 
 
 Islam is Pakistan's national religion and underpins its legal system. Public support for the strict blasphemy laws is strong. 
 
 Hardline politicians have often backed severe punishments, partly as a way of shoring up their support base. 
 
 But critics say the laws have often been used to get revenge after personal disputes, and that convictions are based on thin evidence. 
 
 The vast majority of those convicted are Muslims or members of the Ahmadi community, but since the 1990s, scores of Christians have been convicted. They make up just 1.6% of the population. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption There is widespread support for severe punishments for blasphemers in Pakistan 
 
 The Christian community has been targeted by numerous attacks in recent years, leaving many feeling vulnerable to a climate of intolerance. 
 
 Many of the attacks are motivated by blasphemy cases, but others have come in reaction to the US-led war in Afghanistan. 
 
 No-one has ever been executed under the laws, but some people accused of the offence have been lynched or murdered. 
 
 Asia Bibi, who was born in 1971 and has four children, was the first woman to be sentenced to death under the laws. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Salman Taseer had taken up Asia Bibi's cause and called for reform of the blasphemy laws 
 
 Internationally, her conviction has been widely condemned as a breach of human rights. 
 
 What happens now? 
 
 There are fears that there could be a violent response to her acquittal. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Asia Bibi's husband and daughter say they fear for their safety in Pakistan 
 
 As with her previous trials and appeals, large crowds gathered outside the court in Islamabad on Wednesday demanding her conviction be upheld and the execution carried out. 
 
 She has been offered asylum by several countries and is expected to leave the country. 
 
 Her daughter, Eisham Ashiq, had previously told the AFP news agency that if she were released: "I will hug her and will cry meeting her and will thank God that he has got her released." 
 
 But the family said they feared for their safety and would likely have to leave Pakistan.
– A Christian woman acquitted by Pakistan's Supreme Court eight years after being sentenced to death for blasphemy was flown Wednesday night to a facility in the capital Islamabad from an undisclosed location for security reasons, two senior government officials said. Amid tight security, Asia Bibi left a detention facility in Punjab province for the flight to the capital, the officials said. Troops guarded the roads leading to the airport from which she departed, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday as they were not authorized to speak to media on the record. Authorities last month said they arrested two prisoners for allegedly conspiring to strangle her and since then additional police and troops have been deployed to the facility in Punjab. Officials said Bibi will be safer at the new facility in Islamabad, the AP reports. Bibi's transfer comes a week after the high court in a landmark ruling acquitted Bibi and ordered her released, a move that triggered nationwide protests. Bibi's release was put on hold Friday after authorities held talks with radical Islamists who want her publicly hanged. Bibi was arrested in 2009 on charges of insulting Islam's prophet and she was sentenced to death in 2010. Her lawyer said Wednesday she had been released from jail but was still in protective custody, per the Guardian. Her husband says the family is in danger remaining in Pakistan and is seeking asylum elsewhere, but authorities now say Bibi may not leave the country because a petition for a review of the court's ruling was filed by a radical Islamist lawyer requesting the acquittal be reversed. Pakistani courts usually take years to decide such cases. (Italy is working to help.)