In a shocking incident, a man was burnt alive by a mob in Swat, Pakistan for allegedly insulting the Holy Quran.
Meanwhile, ARY News reported on Sunday that the police have arrested 27 suspects, including two brothers.
The incident took place on June 20 in Madyan town of Swat district, a popular tourist destination located 340 km from the capital Islamabad.
According to Swat District Police Officer (DPO) Zahidullah Khan, the police had taken the suspect in the alleged desecration incident to the police station but the angry mob “attacked the police station and took away the suspect”.
“People set the police station and a mobile vehicle on fire”, the DPO said, adding that the suspect was “burnt to death”.
Videos circulating on social media show a crowd circling around a burning body in the middle of the street, with a large number of people gathered outside the police station. Dawn.com’s correspondent has contacted the police to confirm the footage, Dawn reported.
DPO Khan said that heavy police force has been deployed in Madyan and efforts are being made to control the tense situation.
Apart from this, police teams are conducting raids for more arrests in the Madyan incident.
Earlier, Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal condemned the lynching incident in Swat and called for stopping this ‘street justice’.
During the budget debate in the National Assembly, MP Ahsan Iqbal described the incident as horrific.
Ahsan said parliament should take strong action against “mob justice” as it has brought Pakistan “to the brink of destruction”.
“We must pay attention to this incident. We have now reached a point where religion is being used to justify mob violence and street justice, which is a gross violation of the Constitution, law and the state,” he lamented.
According to Dawn, at least 2,120 people have been charged with blasphemy between 1987 and 2022.
Last month, police rescued a Christian man from angry mob in Sargodha after he was accused of desecrating the Holy Quran; he died nine days later due to his injuries.
In 2022, a middle-aged man was stoned to death by a mob over alleged desecration in a remote village in Khanewal district.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
