I couldn't come up with a regex to catch those, but only one that would catch all other chars(as long as comments don't nest). I think you could use the following: 
$test=q|\AFZ\BJK \*\AFZ...*\ |;
$new.=$1 while $test=~/([^\\]|\\\*.*?\*\\)/g;

[download]
UPDATE: Or, if comments do nest perhaps this will do: 
$test=q|\AFZ\BJK \*\A\*F*\Z...*\ |;
$comment=qr/\\\*(?:[^\\]*|\\[^*]|(??{$comment}))*?\*\\/;
$new.=$1 while $test=~/([^\\]|$comment)/g;

[download]

In reply to Re: Replace character not inside comments by Ido
in thread Replace character not inside comments by Anonymous Monk

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