ISLAMABAD — A Pakistani court ordered police to withdraw blasphemy charges against a Christian teenager on Tuesday, lawyers said, bringing an end to a contentious case that had gripped the country and sown fear in its Christian minority population.

The girl, Rimsha Masih, who comes from an impoverished family of sweepers, was arrested in August after Muslim ­accusers said she had been holding a burned copy of the Noorani Qaida, a religious textbook used to teach the Koran to children. Relatives and human rights workers have said that the girl, 14, has Down syndrome and should be exempt from the blasphemy laws.