A teacher was stabbed to death by a colleague and her students over a 'dream' that she had committed blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad, say reports

• A teacher and two students killed the woman at a school in northern Pakistan, say reports.
• One of their relatives had a dream that the teacher had committed blasphemy, they said.

A teacher in Pakistan was murdered over an alleged dream that she committed blasphemy, local police said.

Blasphemy is a highly inflammatory subject in Pakistan, and those accused are often lynched by vigilante mobs.

Safoora Bibi, 21, was attacked outside an all-girls religious school in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in north Pakistan, in an ultra-conservative region of the Muslim country.

The three attackers, between the ages of 17 and 24, hit her with a stick and then stabbed her in the neck, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported, citing a police report.

"She died after her throat was slit," police official Saghir Ahmed told AFP.

The colleague and two students were arrested and told police they killed the teacher because they alleged one of their relatives, a 13-year-old girl, dreamt that she committed blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad, police told AFP.

Police said that the main suspect in Bibi's killing is a colleague who possibly planned the crime with two nieces studying at the school, AFP reported. Investigators are looking at whether the main suspect had a grudge, said the MailOnline.

The victim's uncle Zahid Qureshi told Radio Free Europe that there was "no enmity" between Bibi and her killers.

"They attended lessons and sometimes returned from school together," Qureshi told the outlet.

"A cruel act has been committed against us, and we demand justice from the authorities."

Blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad is punishable by death under Pakistan's Penal Code.

Rights groups say allegations are often made to persecute minorities or settle personal scores.

According to the US State Department, Pakistani courts heard a record 199 blasphemy cases in 2020.

At least 82 people have been murdered over alleged blasphemy in Pakistan since 1990, according to research by Al Jazeera.

Although Pakistan's government has said it will not tolerate extrajudicial killings over blasphemy, activists say they are reluctant to repeal or reform the controversial laws because of pressure from powerful hardline Islamic groups.