Islamabad, June 21 (EFE).- A man accused of desecrating the Holy Quran was burned to death by an angry mob on Thursday evening in Pakistan’s conservative Swat valley, police said Friday.
The incident occurred in the scenic mountainous Madyan area in Swat district – once under the control of the hardline Pakistani Taliban in late 2007 until the Pakistani military reclaimed it in 2009 -, where the man was being held at a police station for his protection.
The mob snatched him from the police and set him on fire, while also setting the police station ablaze along with official vehicles, according to local police official Rafi Ullah.
“A tourist from Sialkot was accused of desecrating the Quran by the locals who had surrounded him in the market outside his hotel,” Ullah said.
He said the accused left the place and got into a rickshaw with his belongings but the crowd followed him.
However, the police managed to reach him and took him to the police station.
Meanwhile, the crowd began to grow, egged on by announcements from mosques’ loudspeakers urging people to gather.
“The crowd which had turned big by then followed the police vehicle and they broke into the police station after they overpowered the police and then took the accused to a nearby bridge where they burnt him after badly torturing him,” added the police official.
The angry mob also set fire to the goods and vehicles in the police station, while 11 people were also injured apparently by stone pelting, claimed the official.
Ali Amin Gandapur, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – where Swat is situated – took notice of the incident and sought a report from the provincial police chief.
In a statement from his office, the chief minister appealed to the people to remain calm and directed the police to control the situation and fulfill all legal requirements.
Blasphemy is a highly controversial subject in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even accusations without evidence can trigger an angry mob which often leads to violence, torture and sometimes lynching of the accused.
In May, a Christian accused of burning pages of the Holy Qur’an was lynched by a mob in Pakistan’s Punjab’s Sargodha city. He later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Rawalpindi. EFE
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