Mob kills man in Pakistan over blasphemy allegation

A mob in Pakistan has killed a man over alleged desecration of the Quran.

The incident took place in Madyan, a popular hill station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, north-western Pakistan, according to local media.

Hundreds of men stormed and vandalised a police station where the man was kept after he was handed over by the locals.

Videos of the incident circulating on social media showed scores of men beating and then torching the body of the man.

A police spokesman, Mr Wajid Rasool, said that the man accused of blasphemy was a tourist from the Sialkot district of the Punjab.

“We have started investigations into the incident and are tracing those who attacked the police station,” he said.

Blasphemy is a sensitive topic in Pakistan, and those accused can become targets of extremist Muslim vigilante groups.

In some cases, they have been gunned down, burned alive or bludgeoned to death.

In May, a mob vandalised a Christan neighborhood in Sargodha and tortured a man over an allegation of blasphemy.

The man died in a hospital some weeks later.

In one of such incidents in 2020, a Pakistani-U.S. citizen was shot and killed inside a courtroom during his trial.