In a shocking incident in Pakistan’s Swat district, a mob allegedly tortured a man to death by burning him alive over the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran. According to ARY News, the police have arrested 27 suspects, including two brothers, as of Sunday.
The incident took place on June 20 in Madyan, a town in Swat, located 340 km from Islamabad and known as a popular tourist spot. Swat District Police Officer (DPO) Zahidullah Khan stated that the police had initially moved the suspect to the police station, but a charged mob “attacked the police station and took the suspect away.”
DPO Khan further explained, “People set fire to the police station and a mobile vehicle,” and added that the suspect was “torched.” Videos circulating on social media depict a mob surrounding a body on fire in the middle of the road and a large crowd outside a police station. Dawn.com’s correspondent has reached out to the police for confirmation of the footage.
To control the tense situation, a heavy police force has been deployed in Madyan, and police teams are conducting raids to make more arrests related to the incident.
Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal condemned the lynching in Swat, calling for an end to ‘street justice.’ During a budget debate in the National Assembly, Iqbal described the incident as horrific and stressed that parliament must take stern notice of “mob justice,” which he said had brought Pakistan “to the brink of destruction.” He stated, “We must take notice of this incident. We have now reached a point where religion is being used to justify mob violence and street justice, flagrantly violating the Constitution, the law, and the state.”
From 1987 to 2022, at least 2,120 people have reportedly been accused of committing blasphemy, according to Dawn. Last month, police saved a Christian man from an enraged crowd in Sargodha on allegations of desecration of the Holy Quran, although he died nine days later from his injuries. In 2022, a middle-aged man was stoned to death by a mob in a remote village of the Khanewal district over alleged desecration.