Mob lynches Pakistani man for allegedly burning Quran

A Pakistani man identified as Muhammad Mushtaq, was on Sunday, lynched by an angry mob in a remote village in the district of Khanewal in Punjab province in eastern Pakistan, over allegations of burning the Holy Quran, which the angry mob said was a blasphemous offence.

Police reports on Monday stated that Mushtaq who was mentally retarded, was stoned to death by a mob of over 300 people after he was seen desecrating Islam’s holy book inside a Mosque.

According to the police, the custodian of the village Mosque had reported that he saw smoke inside the Mosque, which is adjacent to his home, and rushed over to investigate.

“He found one copy of the Quran burned and saw a man attempting to burn another.

“He said people were starting to arrive for evening prayers as he shouted for the man to stop.

“The incident was reported to a police team which rushed to the Mosque and began to take the man into custody before the mob snatched him away.

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“The crowd began throwing stones at the man and the officers.

“The mob, which included some 300 people, then hanged the man’s body from a tree after killing him.

“Three officers were injured during the attack, as more officers and constables were redeployed to the scene later and took control, allowing for the body to be transported to a hospital for an autopsy,” the police report said.

The province Police Chief, Munawar Gujjar, also said investigators were scanning available videos to try to identify the assailants, adding that 36 people have so far been detained.

“The ill-fated man has been mentally unstable for the last 15 years and according to his family, often went missing from home for days, begging and eating whatever he could find,” Gujjar said.

Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has condemned the violence and said he was seeking a report from Punjab’s chief minister on the police handling of the case.

“We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands and mob lynching will be dealt with with the full severity of the law,” he said in a tweet.

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