Female Pakistani Cop Hailed as Hero for Fending Off Mob

When a Pakistani woman was attacked by a mob angry over what the woman was wearing, a female police officer stepped in to save her. Sheher Bano, an assistant superintendent of police in the city of Lahore, is now being hailed as a hero for rescuing the woman, NBC News reports. Usman Anwar, police inspector general of Punjab province, says Bano "put her life in danger" to protect the woman, who was wearing a dress with colorful Arabic calligraphy on it. The writing said "halwa," which means "beautiful," but onlookers mistook the writing on the dress as verses from the Koran, Sky News reports.

The woman was accused of disrespecting the Muslim holy book, and the mob demanded she remove the garment. Some even said blasphemy should result in a beheading. Bano first tried to shield the woman, then tried to reason with the mob, before covering the woman in another robe and headscarf and guiding her through the mob to safety. Pakistan's military on Wednesday awarded Bano the country's highest honor for law enforcement, calling her "fearless." Local scholars and clerics, meanwhile, were brought in to look at the garment and ultimately released a statement confirming it did not contain verses from the Koran and apologizing for the misunderstanding. (More Pakistan stories.)