A Muslim mob stormed a Pakistani police station on Saturday, dragged a man and lynched him outside for allegedly desecrating a copy of the Koran.
Senior police officer Babar Sarfaraz Alpa said the man, identified only as Waris, had been in police custody after posting images of himself, his wife and a knife on several pages of Islam’s holy book. Waris held up the pages and tossed them across the rural district of Nankana.
Police officers gather outside a police station in Warburton, an area of Nankana district, Pakistan, Sunday, February 12, 2023. (AP Photo/KM Chaudary)
Alpa said an angry mob numbering in the hundreds stormed the Warburton police station, where some protesters used a wooden ladder to scale a wall and opened the front door for the angry mob. He said the group ransacked the entire police station and took Waris from his cell.
“By the time police reinforcements were able to reach the scene, the crowd lynched the man and was about to burn his body. But the police, with the help of saner people in the area, thwarted their attempt,” he said.
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Alpa said Waris was arrested in 2019 on a previous charge of blasphemy and was jailed until mid-2022.
He said Waris desecrated the Quran again on Saturday morning and people who saw him grabbed him and started beating him. However, the police rescued Waris and detained him.
Blasphemy charges carry the death penalty under Pakistani law.
Pakistani and international human rights groups say blasphemy charges have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores. Pakistan’s government has long been under pressure to change the country’s blasphemy laws, something Islamists are strongly resisting.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the incident and called on the Punjab police chief to take action against the officers who failed to protect the suspect while he was in custody.
Alpa said the Waris lynching would be investigated.
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Usman Anwar, the Punjab police chief, suspended the police station chief and area deputy superintendent for negligence in carrying out their duties and for failing to prevent the attack on the police station as well as the murder of the suspect.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
