this is d.w. news live from berlin freedom for a woman sentenced to death in pakistan and anger on the streets. hard line islamists have called for death to the judges who overturned a woman's blasphemy conviction bibi had been sentenced to hang for insulting islam police are bracing for more protests also coming up one hundred eighty two metres high it's being called the tallest statue in the world but india's three hundred fifty million euro statue of unity inaugurated today has so far been anything but

a symbol of togetherness. i'm sumi so much going to thank you for joining us of course in pakistan has freed a christian woman sentenced to death by hanging for blasphemy a mother of four aasia bibi was condemned to death in two thousand and ten she was the first woman in the country to receive a death sentence for insulting islam and her case has caused widespread outrage among both human rights groups and hard line islamists extra security forces were deployed in the capital after islamists threatened violence upon her release. let's get more on the story with. asia also as a baby has been fighting for her life for nearly a decade now tell us more about her story. well it's been a ready tragic story. in two thousand and nine she was accused of blasphemy

by her neighbors. it was a very bad thing about drawing water from a gravelled so that shows how religious minorities christians are treated in pakistan with contempt they are discriminated against so that escalated and in two thousand and ten she was arrested we must understand and in pakistan the blasphemy is punishable to death the court sentenced to death. the lahore high court in two thousand and fifteen upheld. the charges and today the supreme court of pakistan. which the decision was headed by liberal activists and rights groups in pakistan channel it's been a long and difficult ordeal for us you know what's going to happen to her now will she be able to stay in pakistan and what about her family. well it will be

almost impossible for us here bibi to stay in pakistan i don't see her staying in pakistan i think she will be taken out of the country as soon as possible she will be flown out to the u.k. where her relatives are staying so i believe that the government the state willian government headed by prime the stream. would not want to take any risk keeping inside pakistan we see that already islam is to have taken to the streets they are agitating burning die as they have blocked roads so we know that this lamas are pretty powerful in the country and the civilian governments have. kind of surrendered to their power in the past so i don't see because it's a very sensitive issue and the judge is about under threat the civilian government is under pressure i don't think. bibi would be staying in pakistan for long channel you mentioned islamists are protesting police are bracing for violence tell us more

about how this case in particular is really divided pakistanis. but must understand we need to analyze islamist negative the state narrative of pakistan islamists are powerful they have been supported by the military in the past they still the allegations that the still support them as proxies in afghanistan in kashmir. due to put pressure on the afghan government and the indian government the religious groups think if there is any compromise you see why it's so important for them as they believe if the blasphemy laws the controversial blasphemy laws promulgated in the eighty's or repealed or even amended slightly would be a compromise on the negative and that would pave the way for a secular pakistan and the pakistani authorities even the military because the u.s. has been accusing them of supporting islamists in afghanistan and elsewhere so the

pakistani state itself does not want. to weaken islamised but now the supreme court decision gives us hope on the rights activists have ignored the supreme court's controversial decisions in the past and now everybody is appreciating the decision it might be the beginning of something which might lead to a second a pox on in the future all right shama shams from asia for us thank you so much thanks for having me on the show. nato has been holding its largest military exercises since the end of the cold war it's mainly taking place in norway and all twenty nine nato member states plus finland and sweden are involved the vast security operation is called pride and juncture it will stretch into parts of the north atlantic and the baltic sea it's taken months to get everything in position now fifty thousand troops and support personnel two hundred fifty aircraft sixty

five naval vessels and up to ten thousand military vehicles are now in the region moscow has called the maneuvers quote and anti russian exercise to. accompany the troops and tanks. why. i know. blowing up obstacles. and building bridges in just a few minutes two capabilities that the german army is bringing to try to juncture . but i've these old school skills still needed in times of hybrid warfare and cyber attacks as a result after the ukraine crisis we saw that it is more important to change back from stability operations to higher terms of awful provisions of what we see and as an interest to move larger formations and heavy equipment and that's had not been trained and done with within the last ten years far from the russian border germany

has set up its operational headquarters and then always been into lands together with troops from france the netherlands belgium and. germany alone has brought ten thousand soldiers up here to norway and just into tanks weapons and other supplies it's a massive logistical challenge designed to improve the speech with which nato members could in a worst case scenario come to each other's rescue. the huge influx of people and equipment more than fifty thousand soldiers from thirty one countries is a true test for the host nation norway. but the attitude among the public is there really positive support for nato here is among the highest of all member states and not just because norway shares a border with russia they're not so afraid that it will be a war are nothing but that's a lot of things happening in the world so you never know how so nato is important

for us of course well i believe russia has become a big threat in the last two years and i wouldn't need new we need to show where our power your best war in the world and i know i could be part of it but it's not like it's something i think about but some of nato is testing. the passive to use are hidden from the population. remote controlled weapon systems. self driving vehicles. military drones. so is this the future of the workfare all those capabilities have to be reversible or it means that. the forces can rely on this capability and have to have to know how to do without those capabilities because. the system can be jammed all destroy all taken by. someone else so the military have to remain reversible. and that's why the airlines are still banking on tanks and boots

on the ground battling daunting logistics and the elements here in the frigid no we gen climate. are at let's get more on the story now database teri schultz was part of the team reporting in norway and she joins us for more hi terry so does this military drill have real use or is it just a show of force. nato very much wants to show russia even though it says this is against an unnamed aggressor that if it dared to issue a credible threat to a nato ally then all twenty nine countries would be there and this trident juncture exercise was a huge huge practice for military mobility. some of these forces have to travel a long way to get to someplace like norway or the baltic states or or poland where the threat would probably be issued and they needed to practice literally driving

that far and i was told that some take showed up with summer tires some troops should put some are socks so it's good to practice now where there's there you know where they're really they really don't need to go into battle kerry besides colder conditions why are we seeing this drill now what about the timing. russia would like to make us think that this is all in relation to recent events but in fact the no we did military told me that they had bid to host these exercises back in two thousand and thirteen now that of course is before russia annexed crimea that doesn't mean that those events didn't very much shape with the exercises that we're seeing today the the huge number of troops that are there the different kind of exercises. practicing you know if troops really did come across the border those things have been very much shaped by the events in ukraine and will continue to be practiced because nato is admitted to itself that it has sort of lost it's lost its

edge when it comes to territorial defense and that's very much what trying juncture is focused on now kerry russia still planning to test navy missiles off the coast of norway are we seeing an escalation of tensions here. the tensions are already high that can't be denied i don't think that anybody's so worried about these new missile tests that russia and now most because they actually notified nato as is required by international agreement that they were going to conduct these tests and nato secretary-general you instilled reward russia to stay within the limits prescribed by these international agreements but at the same time i would point out that the softer new nato headquarters still timber will meet the russian ambassador so the diplomatic track the two track approach that nato always likes to talk about is very much in the works so diplomacy is happening here in brussels even as these huge exercises are taking place in norway all right do reporting for us from brussels thank you terry let's catch up on some other stories making headlines around the world officials in indonesia say they have detected pings believed to be

from the black box of the ill fated lion airplane divers in the java sea are searching for the device which contains both the voice cockpit recorder and flight data recorder the aircraft crashed just minutes after takeoff on monday all one hundred eighty nine people onboard are presumed dead. one man is dead after he detonated an explosive at russia's intelligence agency according to officials it happened at the entrance of the federal security service in our northern russia three employees were injured the attack which is being treated as terrorism was reportedly carried out by a local seventeen year old and russian space agency says they also use rocket launch weeks ago was caused by a faulty sensor a russian an american cosmonaut going through to the international space station when they were forced to make an emergency landing shortly after taking off the agency as scheduled the next manned mission for december india has unveiled the world's tallest statue prime minister narendra modi inaugurated the monument in

a ceremony honoring sardar patel who is credited with uniting india after its break from britain in one thousand nine hundred seven but the inauguration has also been mired in controversy as locals are angry at the high cost of the statue and the damage to the environment. you are very we did not manage that and with pomp and tight security india's prime minister narendra modi inaugurated the statue of unity . one hundred eighty two metre tall bronze clad towering over western state. india's iron man sardar patel was the country's first deputy prime minister after india gained independence in one thousand nine hundred seventy patel played a key role in bringing the country states together. rather only because of his efforts his knowledge and bringing them together.

into one united india this so-called symbol of unification was nearly four years in the making now its unveiling is being overshadowed by protests and accusations of political point scoring the statue is part of the hindu nationalist parties effort to rebrand what it calls forgotten leaders but their critics see this as an effort to to appropriate a national hero figure ahead of next year's national election. the four hundred million dollars project has uprooted many residents one hundred eighty five families most of them belonging to local tribes were forced to leave their homes. ahead of the inauguration local chiefs called for modi to stay away and there are reports of activist leaders who have been detained. and despite protests authorities hope the site will be

a popular tourist attraction in this remote corner of india. and they are rushing to ensure the area has enough hotels restaurants and other infrastructure to cope with the anticipated rush. all right you're watching a d.w.i. a bit coin turns ten even barely basically has more of that story coming right up in business. with him how to be gun to go soggy as well lions i know if i had known the boat would be that small i never would have gone on the trail of you i would not have put myself and my parents in the danger to the products of the theme of the going to give us leave for a. mom.