Police in eastern Pakistan said Sunday they had taken into custody dozens of suspects in connection with mob lynching of a mentally unstable middle-aged man who was accused of burning Islam’s holy book, the Quran.
The arrests came a day after the incident took place in the district of Khanewal in Punjab province, where police said an angry crowd of about 300 people assaulted the alleged blasphemer with bricks and iron rods before hanging his body on a tree.
Police identified the victim as 41-year-old Mushtaq Ahmed, who was reportedly professing his innocence while under attack.
Local media quoted eyewitnesses as saying that police had reached the village and briefly took Ahmed into custody on blasphemy charges before the mob snatched him away and subsequently killed him.
Prime Minister Imran Khan pledged to bring to justice those responsible.
“We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands & mob lynchings will be dealt with full severity of the law,” Khan tweeted.
The prime minister said he had sought a report from the provincial authorities on the action taken against “perpetrators of the lynching and against the police who failed in their duty.” VOA