Mob Lynches Man in Pakistan Who Allegedly Desecrated a Holy Book

A mob lynched a man, identified as Muhammad Mushtaq, in Tulamba, a village in central Pakistan’s Khanewal district, after he allegedly burned pages of the Quran, local police and officials said on Sunday. A government spokesman said police had arrested more than 60 people suspected of involvement in the killing, and that additional suspects were being identified through video that villagers had shot and posted to social media. A mob gathered at a mosque on Saturday night after the son of its prayer leader announced that he had seen Mushtaq burning pages of the Muslim holy book, police official Munawar Hussain told Reuters. Mushtaq was in his 50s and appeared to have mental disabilities. “The villagers armed with batons, axes, and iron rods killed him and hanged his body from a tree,” Hussain said. Police who arrived at the scene found him unconscious and tied to the tree. The mobbed attacked the police, as well, the spokesman said. “The lynching will be dealt with [the] full severity of the law,” Prime Minister Imran Khan said in a statement. “We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands.” Lynchings over accusations of blasphemy are not uncommon in Pakistan. In December, factory workers in the city of Sialkot beat to death a 50-year-old Sri Lankan Christian man and burned his body after he allegedly desecrated a sticker that contained the Prophet Muhammad’s name.