ISLAMABAD: Pakistan PM Imran Khan said on Sunday that mob lynching will be dealt with strictly under the law after a middle-aged man was stoned to death in Khanewal district of Punjab province the day before for allegedly desecrating the Quran.
According to police, residents of Jungle Dera village of Mian Channu tehsil accused a man named Mushtaq of burning pages of the Quran and around 200-300 people tied him up to a tree before killing him by throwing stones and bricks and him and then beating him with rods and sticks.
The killing revived memories of Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara being lynched in Sialkot in December 2021. Blasphemy charges are often enough to trigger mob violence in Pakistan. Such accusations, according to observers, are often aimed at settling personal vendettas, especially against the minorities.
PM Khan condemned Saturday’s lynching and wrote on Twitter: “We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands and mob lynching incidents will be dealt with full severity of the law. Have asked the Punjab police chief for report on action taken against the perpetrators of the lynching in Mian Channu and against the police who failed in their duty.”
Police have identified 33 suspects. “They hung his body from a tree,” the police report. The mob was apparently in no mood to let the cops cut loose the body and send it for an autopsy.
Eyewitnesses said a police team reached the village well before the stoning and even arrested the victim, but the mob snatched him from the station house officer’s custody.
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