Pakistan: Man accused of blasphemy lynched to death in Punjab’s Nankana Sahib

Punjab, Pakistan: A man accused of blasphemy was dragged from a police station and tortured to death by a violent mob at Punjab’s Nankana Sahib in Pakistan on Saturday. The videos of the incident have been circulating over social media platforms, which show hundreds of youngsters indulging in violence inside the police compound, with one man getting to the other side and opening the lock of the gate.

As seen in the video, the accused (identified as Muhammed Waris) was dragged through streets by his legs, stripping of his clothes and beaten with sticks and metal rods till he succumbed to the torture. Moreover, the Station House Officer, Warburton Feroze Bhatti, fled the mob lynching scene to save their own lives.

The residents of the area claimed that the accused had returned after serving a two-years sentence in jail and used to perform witchcraft by pasting his ex-wife’s pictures on holy papers.
According to the police officials, Waris was arrested for desecrating the Quran, which led to outrage amongst the residents, who later surrounded the police station to take him under the mob’s custody. Following the agitation among the massive crowd, the police officers fled, and Waris was dragged into the streets and tortured to death.

The lynching incidents in Pakistan and its inability to tackle the lynchings over blasphemy have attracted a lot of criticism for the country from International rights groups. Pakistan’s law considers blasphemy as a crime, which can be penalized with a death sentence as well.

In 2021, a Sri Lankan national was murdered by a mob for allegedly being indulged in blasphemous activities. Six men faced the death sentence for lynching the Sri Lankan national.
Meanwhile, numerous police officials have been suspended following their inability to control the mob.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif has ordered the investigation into the lynching matter at the Warburton police station, questioning the police’s inability to stop the lynching of Muhammed Waris.