An enraged mob in central Pakistan stormed a police station Saturday, grabbed a detainee facing blasphemy charges and lynched him.
The incident happened in Nankana Sahib, a remote city in the most populous Punjab province of the Muslim-majority country.
Police officials said the victim, identified as Muhammad Waris, had been taken into custody for allegedly desecrating the Quran. They said news of the alleged crime outraged residents and hundreds of them later surrounded the police station, demanding the accused be handed over to them.
Overwhelmed by the large crowd, police officers fled the facility. Protesters grabbed the man and dragged him out to the street where they beat him to death. A police spokesperson later told reporters that police reinforcements were able to prevent the mob from setting the body on fire.
Videos circulating on social media showed protesters dragging the victim’s naked body through the streets.
A provincial police statement said senior staff at the police station had been suspended for failing to prevent the mob assault and an immediate inquiry into the incident had been ordered.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also denounced the mob assault and ordered authorities to quickly investigate it, his office said in a statement.
“Why didn’t the police stop the violent mob? The rule of law should be ensured. No one should be allowed to influence the law,” Sharif was quoted as saying.
Sharif’s special representative for interfaith harmony, Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, said in a statement the “inhuman torture and killing” of the suspected blasphemer was a “cruel and criminal act.”
“The Islamic Shariah and the law of Pakistan do not allow anyone to be a litigant by himself, a judge and an arbitrator by himself,” Ashrafi wrote on Twitter.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in predominantly Muslim Pakistan and the offense is punishable by death. Mere allegations of blasphemy are enough to cause riots and the killing of the accused by vigilante groups.
Suspects are often attacked and sometimes lynched by mobs. Domestic and international rights groups say allegations of blasphemy are enough to cause mob attacks and the killing of accused. Blasphemy laws are also used to fulfill personal vendettas, disputes and intimidate religious minorities.
A Sri Lankan factory manager was beaten to death by co-workers in Punjab’s industrial city of Sialkot in December 2021 after falsely accusing him of insulting Islam. A court later sentenced six men to death for lynching the foreigner.
Saturday’s incident came nearly two weeks after Pakistan assured a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council that it was taking steps to counter misuse of blasphemy laws.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar told the January 30 Geneva meeting the government had instituted safeguards against the misuse of the blasphemy law. She cited legal provisions calling for action against anyone falsely accusing someone of blasphemy.
Blasphemy laws in Pakistan have enabled and encouraged Islamist extremists to operate with impunity, easily targeting religious minorities or those with differing beliefs, including nonbelievers, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its 2022 country report.
The commission alleged the Sharif government also “weaponized the discriminatory blasphemy laws” against former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his cabinet members.
“Religious minorities, however, remain particularly vulnerable to aggression and accusations under these laws as they continue to face threats of violence in a society that has grown increasingly intolerant of religious diversity,” the report said.
