An angry mob stormed a police station in eastern Pakistan on Saturday and beat to death a man they accused of having desecrated the Koran, under the gaze of several police officers, who have been suspended for failing to prevent the event.
“First the mob took him out of his house and started beating him and then the police took him to the police station,” said Muhammed Waqas, a police spokesman for Nankana district in the eastern Punjab province where the lynching took place.
Despite the fact that the victim was in police custody inside the police station, the spokesman added that the crowd gathered outside, demanding that the authorities hand over the alleged blasphemer to “exercise justice themselves.”
Faced with the refusal of the Police, dozens of people “broke into the police station and killed him,” said Waqas, who stated that at first the mob tried to burn the victim alive but “she was saved by the Police.”
Although far from concluding the work, the crowd removed the lifeless body and dragged it “naked through the streets while other people (he) threw sticks and stones.”
Some videos of the event uploaded to social networks show several people scaling the large door of the police station and forcing it open, allowing the mob to enter the building.
In response to the violent incident, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the opening of an investigation, failing to understand how law enforcement had failed to arrest the mob.
“Why didn’t the police stop the violent crowd? The rule of law must be guaranteed, ”Sharif said in a statement published by his press office.
In addition, Punjab Police Chief Usman Anwar suspended two officers for the security breaches, saying action would be taken against the attackers.
“Strict legal and departmental action will be taken against those responsible for the incident, as well as the perpetrators of negligence and incompetence,” Anwar said in a statement.
Pakistan has a tough blasphemy law, established in British colonial times to prevent religious clashes, but in the 1980s various reforms sponsored by the then dictator, Mohamed Zia-ul-Haq, favored the abuse of this rule
Since then, there have been over a thousand charges of blasphemy, a crime that in Pakistan can carry the death penalty, although no one has ever been executed for such a crime.
Last February, a man was stoned to death by a mob for allegedly desecrating the Koran, also in Punjab.
Two months before that incident, another mob had lynched and set fire to the body of a man of Sri Lankan origin in the north-eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot, also accused of blasphemy.
According to a report by the Center for Investigation and Security Studies, up to 89 citizens were killed in 1,415 indictments and blasphemy cases in Pakistan between 1947 and 2021.