Peshawar, June 22: Pakistan has set up a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to identify and arrest members of a mob that burnt alive a man for alleged blasphemy in Swat, even as an interior ministry report said that the man had repeatedly denied desecrating the holy Quran.
The incident took place on Thursday night. An enraged mob of around 2,000 people, allegedly egged on by members of the extremist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, ransacked the police station where the man was held in protective custody. They dragged out the suspect, a 40-year-old man, thrashed him and set him ablaze while he was still alive. The crowd also burnt down the police station, and some police vehicles. Eight policemen were injured in the fracas.
A 10-member JIT, comprising officials from the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), Special Branch, and senior police officers, will be monitored by Malakand Division Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police.
The identification of the people who were part of the mob will be aided by cellular data and the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
According to Aaj news, the man, said to be a tourist from Sialkot, had found small pieces of probably the pages of the Quran allegedly desecrated on the verandah, opposite his room’s door, the interior ministry report said.
The man, who was identified as S*, informed the hotel management about it. The management informed the police and also started to force open his room’s door.
He opened the door. When asked about the torn pages, he “denied” desecrating the Quran. Police arrived and took him away to the station where they were “marooned”. He was detained for at least 30 to 40 minutes.
However, goons of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan gathered outside the police station and stormed it. They were “in contact with the TLP leadership and many were seen speaking on the phone in Urdu to unknown handlers”, the report said.
The blasphemy accused man reiterated that he did not desecrate the holy book.
The police tried to control the situation, and tried to disperse the crowd by firing in the air. However, no senior police officials were present at the scene or even political elders, to calm the situation.
Eye witness accounts revealed that senior officers were somewhere in the vicinity as they were reporting to high-ups factually but were “not on the ground to take charge” of the situation.
Police had requested reinforcements to control the crowd, but the local Station House Officer (SHO) failed to move the suspect to a secure location.
The situation was exacerbated by announcements from mosque loudspeakers asking locals to come out in large numbers, after which the mob stormed the police station.
Graphic videos of the incident showed a frenzied mob dragging a naked and bloodied person through the streets, and then setting it on fire. The footage has sparked an outcry among netizens.
Last month, a Christian man in his seventies was attacked by a mob on charges of burning pages of the Quran and later died of his injuries in Sialkot.
In 2021, a Sri Lankan factory manager was lynched in one of the highest-profile incidents in the country. Six people were sentenced to death for their part in the lynching after the incident sparked global outcry.
