Pakistan: Mob kills, tries to burn another man over alleged blasphemy in area of Molana Tariq Jamil

In the video, the charged mob is seen shouting Allah O Akbar and saying to set him on fire

A mob of various hundreds have killed a man on allegations of blasphemy and tried to set the body on fire in Talamba area of Khaneal, where Molana Tariq Jamil also lives.

At 17 Morre area a charged mob dragged and killed him, Muhammad Arshad clerk at Talamba police station told The Religion Observer. He said the mob had alleged him of entering the area mosque and burning pages of Holy Quran. He said the identity of the man is not ascertained so far but it seems he is not belonging to this area. It is worth mentioning that 17 Morre is three kilometres away from Hussain Pur (Raeesan Wala), where famous Deobandi scholar Molana Tariq Jamil belongs to.

Various police officers are also injured while trying to save the victim. He said Mian Channu Saddar Police station SHO Iqbal Shah is among injured police officers. He said the Regional Police Officer and the District Police Officer have reached the place of occurrence and are trying to control the situation.

In the video posted with this story, people can be heard saying to set him on fire while some others were stopping them. However, till the filing of this report, it is not confirmed if the body was set on fire.

Two months ago in December, a mob had killed a Sri Lankan manager of a factory in the Sialkot district of Pakistan. Such cases of vigilantism find ‘justification’ in Pakistan because of the country’s controversial blasphemy law. Pakistan, an Islamic state, has notoriously draconian laws against blasphemy, which carry the death sentence. The laws are often used against religious minorities and those accused are sometimes lynched before their case goes to court. The culture of fear around blasphemy cases means judges are often too afraid to find the accused anything other than guilty.

One of Pakistan’s most infamous blasphemy cases is that of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death in 2010 after being accused of blasphemy by her co-workers. Almost a decade later she was acquitted after heavy international pressure.

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