Asia Bibi, the Christian woman at the centre of a decade-long blasphemy row, has left Pakistan, local media said on Wednesday, months after her death sentence was overturned to mass protests by Islamist hardliners.

If confirmed, it will be the latest chapter in a saga that has sparked violent demonstrations and high-profile assassinations while spotlighting rising religious extremism across wide sections of Pakistani society.

It was not clear when Bibi may have left or where she may have gone. Her daughters are believed to have already fled to Canada.

Her departure was reported by Dawn, Pakistan’s biggest English-language newspaper, and Geo News, one of the country’s largest private broadcasters. Both cited unnamed official and unofficial sources.

Pakistani officials did not confirm the reports to AFP. The case is extraordinarily sensitive, and multiple previous claims about her departure ended up being false.

“It is a great relief that this shameful ordeal has finally come to an end and Asia Bibi and her family are safe,” said Omar Waraich, deputy South Asia director at Amnesty International.

Bibi – a labourer from central Punjab province – was first convicted of blasphemy in 2010 and was on death row until her acquittal last year.

Her case swiftly became the most infamous in Pakistan, drawing worldwide attention to extremism in the country where blasphemy is an incendiary issue. It carries a maximum death penalty under the country’s penal code.

Bibi has technically been free to leave Pakistan since January when the Supreme Court dismissed a legal challenge to her acquittal in October.

Since then, Bibi has been widely believed to have been held in protective custody by authorities as she awaited an asylum deal in a third country.

Two politicians have been assassinated in connection with Bibi’s case, and she spent much of her time in prison in solitary confinement because of fears she could be attacked by a guard or another prisoner.