New Delhi: A tourist from Sialkot, who was earlier apprehended over alleged charges of blasphemy and desecration of the Quran, was burnt to death by an angry mob while on his visit to Madyan in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The man was dragged out of the police station, beaten with sticks, and then torched. The mob even burnt the police station down, Dawn reported. Now, some Pakistanis are calling their country ‘the craziest nation on earth’ and likening it to Somalia.
Videos making the rounds on the internet show a mob circling the burning man and the police station.
Activists and journalists took to X to condemn the incident and demand accountability, accusing the radical Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) of creating such situations in Swat, a stronghold region of the party.
“Forget FDI, SIFC, electricity and petrol prices, are we heading toward the Somalia model? Can we not deal with such incidents through the law enforcement agencies? We had to deal with the Taliban mostly in the North and also now TLP in Punjab,” an angry user tweeted.
Another user wrote, “Imagine going on Eid vacation but then getting accused of blasphemy & lynched to death. A man from Sialkot was burnt alive in Swat by a violent mob. No wonder everything in this country from top to bottom is on massive decline. The craziest nation on earth.”
Madyan is among the most renowned tourist destinations in Swat Valley in Pakistan.
“How can you have tourism (even Halal Tourism) when the image of the country is of lawless mob justice and extremism?” Lahore University of Management Sciences professor and activist Taimur Rahman tweeted.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur also condemned the incident and sought a report on it.
Ex-federal minister Fawad Chaudhry called the incident madness and tweeted, “We are hell bent to commit suicide as a society #Extremism.”
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Blasphemy laws in Pakistan
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have often come under the spotlight for their misuse against minorities and personal vendetta.
According to Pakistani law, any expression deemed disrespectful toward the Holy Prophet Muhammad, whether spoken, written, visually represented, or implied directly or indirectly, is punishable by death, life imprisonment, and fines. This legal framework, partially inherited from British colonial rule, saw limited use until the 1970s. It was reinforced under the military regime of General Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s.
Former Prime Minister and PTI leader Imran Khan endorsed this law and in 2021 advocated for Muslim-majority nations to unite in lobbying Western governments to criminalise the defamation of Islam’s Prophet.
Despite no executions having been carried out, blasphemy accusations frequently lead to convictions in Pakistan.
Many of these verdicts have later been overturned by higher courts on appeal but vigilante groups, like the mob in Sialkot, often inflict fatal violence even before trials begin.
Victims of such extrajudicial killings include religious minorities, prominent figures, students, clergy, and individuals with mental health challenges, subjected to methods such as burning, hanging, shooting in courtrooms, and roadside hacking.
The TLP, a far-Right political party, also advocates for executions by beheading individuals accused of blasphemy. The party’s rise has been correlated with an increase in blasphemy cases filed on ideological grounds.
From 1987 to 2022, approximately 2,120 individuals have been accused of blasphemy in Pakistan, Dawn reported.
Pakistanis have been doing their best to make sure everybody on the planet hate Islam to their gut. My salute and best wishes :))