ISLAMABAD: Police in the Pakistani province of Punjab have said they have arrested more than 100 suspects in connection with the lynching of a middle-aged man over alleged blasphemy in a remote village in Khanewal district last week.
The killing comes just months after a mob of factory employees tortured and burned a Sri Lankan manager in Sialkot in December over apparent blasphemy in a “horrific” attack that Prime Minister Imran Khan said had brought shame on the country.
The Sialkot incident drew nationwide condemnation and authorities arrested dozens of people over involvement in the killing of Priyantha Kumara. Those linked to Kumara’s murder are facing a trial in Pakistan.
On Sunday, PM Khan ordered action against the mob and any police who acted as onlookers to the Saturday killing of the man for allegedly burning pages of the Holy Qur’an.
“Police identified and arrested 6 more main accused. So far 21 main accused have been arrested while a total of 102 suspects have been arrested,” Punjab police said on Twitter on Monday.
“Raids are underway to nab more suspects since last night,” police said.
A government spokesman said suspects were being identified through social media videos shot by the villagers in Tulamba, Khanewal district.
The mob gathered at a mosque on Saturday night after the son of its prayer leader announced that he had spotted the man burning pages of the holy book, Reuters said, quoting police official Munawar Hussain.
Police arrived to find the man unconscious and tied to a tree, Hussain said, adding that the mob also attacked the police.
“The villagers armed with batons, axes and iron rods killed him and hanged his body from a tree,” Hussain said.
He said that evidence so far gathered by police suggested the dead man, identified as Muhammad Mushtaq, was in his 50s and appeared to have had mental disabilities.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s adviser on religious harmony, Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, said in a statement on Sunday said the killers in Khanewal had “defamed Islam and Muslims with this brutal act.”
“The incumbent government is amending the criminal law after 76 years in the country to ensure speedy trial and to take the involved elements to justice in such incidents,” Ashrafi said.
Mob killings over accusations of blasphemy — a crime that can carry the death sentence — are fairly frequent in Muslim-majority Pakistan.
In January this year, a Pakistani court sentenced a Muslim woman to death after finding her guilty of blasphemy for insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The woman, Aneeqa Atteeq, was arrested in May 2020 after a man alerted police that she sent him offensive caricatures via WhatsApp.
Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting the religion or religious figures can be sentenced to death. While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, just the accusation can cause riots.
In December, at a memorial service for Kumara, PM Khan vowed his government would never again allow anyone to misuse religion to perpetrate violence in Pakistan.
“The government will not spare anyone who tries to use religion, particularly the name of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), to generate violence,” the prime minister said. “Such instances will not be allowed to take place on my watch.”
