Pakistani residents gather outside the house of Rimsha, who was arrested on charges of blasphemy. — AFP File Photo

ISLAMABAD: A blasphemy case took a bizarre turn here on Saturday when police arrested Khalid Jadoon, a prayer leader who had allegedly put some pages of the holy Quran among the burnt papers to strengthen the case against a Christian girl.

The arrest was made after a statement before a magistrate by a witness, Hafiz Zubair, a Muezzin in the same mosque, in which he alleged that he saw Khalid Jadoon putting the pages of Quran in the polythene bags containing the burnt papers.

A heavy contingent of police raided the residence of the prayer leader after obtaining arrest warrants, picked him up and put him behind bars.

The witness disclosed before an executive magistrate that the Imam of the mosque in Mehra Jaffer had included two pages of the Quran among burnt papers brought to him by the complainant in order to exacerbate the situation.

He said he was sitting in Aitkaf in the mosque located in front of the house of the girl when complainant Malik Hammad brought the burnt pages in two polythene bags to the prayer leader.

The witness said he tried to stop the cleric from tampering with the evidence, but he insisted it would strengthen the case and lead to eviction of the girl’s family from the locality.