An angry mob has attacked a police station in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab Province, killing a man detained on allegations of blasphemy, prompting Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to order an investigation into the incident.
Hundreds of people had descended on the police station in Nankana Sahib on February 11, police said.
The crowd then stormed the building and lynched the man accused of desecrating the Koran, the Islamic holy book.
Video uploaded to social media showed hundreds of men in front of the police station and then vandalizing the building.
The Punjab Inspector-General of Police Usman Anwar suspended two senior police officers who fled the scene and failed to prevent the lynching, a police statement said.
"No one is allowed to take the law into their hands, no matter how influential they are," Anwar was quoted as saying.
In ordering a probe into the incident, Sharif questioned why police had failed to “stop the violent mob,” a statement released by his office said.
“Those involved in the brutal murder should be arrested,” said Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, a religious scholar and chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, an umbrella group of Muslim bodies.
Mob attacks against people accused of blasphemy occur regularly in Pakistan. Rights groups say such accusations have often been used to intimidate religious minorities or settle personal scores. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan.
In its annual World Report 2023, Human Rights Watch said the Pakistani government had failed to amend or repeal blasphemy law provisions that provide a pretext for violence against religious minorities, as well as arbitrary arrests and prosecution.
According to the global human rights watchdog, members of the Ahmadiyya religious community are a major target for prosecution under blasphemy laws, as well as specific anti-Ahmadi laws.
In January 2022, an anti-cybercrime court sentenced Aneeqa Atiq to death because she shared “blasphemous content” on WhatsApp, Human Rights Watch noted.
In February 2022 in Khanewal, Punjab, a mob stoned to death Mushtaq Ahmed, who had been diagnosed with a mental disorder, for allegedly desecrating the Koran, the rights group added.