In Pakistan, a mob thrashed a man to death with stones, in the Khanewal area Saturday, after allegations emerged that he had burnt pages of the Quran. According to reports, the victim was mentally ill and disabled.
Reports said that the local police let the accused go out of the Mian Chunnu police station where a crowd was waiting for him. From there, the mob dragged the victim, tied him to a tree and pelted stones, which ultimately led to his death.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has condemned the incident and said that Pakistan has zero tolerance for mob lynchings. He has also ordered action against the police.
We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands & mob lynchings will be dealt with full severity of the law. Have asked Punjab IG for report on action taken against perpetrators of the lynching in MIan Channu & against the police who failed in their duty.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) February 13, 2022
The police have so far detained 102 people in this case, out of which 21 are considered prime suspects.
The incident is being widely criticised in Pakistan and the media has called it a failure of law and order.
On Monday, Pakistani news website The News International said: “10 weeks after Sialkot tragedy: 85 held for lynching man in Khanewal”.
In its 12 February report, The Express Tribune alleged that the police stood as a “silent spectator” when the mob was torturing the victim. The report said “the victim was dragged to a nearby place, tortured and killed whereas the police allegedly played the role of silent spectator.”
The report also added that “This is not the first incident of citizens becoming judges, jury and executioners.”
On 13 February, the editorial of Pakistan Today described the lynching as a failure of law and order and justice system. It questioned the police system and the government: “The state has not been very helpful of late, with the way it has been mollycoddling extremist forces like the Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan, as well as the Tehreek Taliban Pakistan. This has merely sent the signal that the way to get things done is to do them oneself.”
Bol News described the incident as regrettable. Its editor-in-chief Nazir Leghari said that a special court should be set up in Sialkot and Khanewal incident, and the culprits punished at the earliest.
People’s anger also came out on social media. And the opposition targeted the Imran Khan government.
Opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif condemned the incident and said that reversal of extremism in society should be a national issue.
Mob lynching incident in Khanewal is bone chilling. Reversal of extremism in society should be a national cause that requires concerted efforts from all. The present situation can't be allowed to persist. A public dialogue can be the first step in the process of de-radicalisation
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) February 13, 2022
Ruling party PTI’s information secretary Rizwana Ghazanfar wrote that if the Sialkot case had been properly investigated, such an incident would not have happened again.
Another man was killed in #Khanewal for #blasphemy Quran.This would not have happened if the Sialkot incident had been properly investigated The police are silent spectators there.Sometimes people do it for their own benefit.#Pakistani pic.twitter.com/nJAVCw0oMX
— Rizwana Ghazanfar Official (@RizwanaGhazanf1) February 13, 2022
A user wrote that religious extremists killed a person today, tomorrow they can kill us too.
Government representatives have also condemned the incident. Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari wrote that culprits should be punished.
The mob lynching of a man in MIan Channu is condemnable & cannot be allowed to go unpunished. Punjab govt must immed take action against the police that watched it happen & the perpetrators. Laws exist – the police must enforce these laws & not allow mobs to rule the day.
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) February 13, 2022
Minister for Information, Fawad Chaudhry tweeted: “I have repeatedly pointed out destructive extremism in my education system. Incidents like Sialkot and Mian Channu have been the result of decades of enforcement of the education system. The pulpit, if these three are not repaired, be prepared for a catastrophe.’
میں نے بارہا اپنے نظام تعلیم میں تباہ کن شدت پسندی کی طرف توجہ دلائ ہے،سیالکوٹ اور میاں چنوں جیسے واقعات عشروں سے نافذ تعلیمی نظام کا حاصل ہیں یہ مسئلہ قانون کے نفاذ کا بھی ہے اور سماج کی تنزلی کا بھی، سکول، تھانہ اور منبر اگر ان تین کی اصلاح نہ ہوئ تو بڑی تباہی کیلئے تیار رہیں
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) February 13, 2022
A similar situation had emerged in Faisalabad on Saturday but the police managed to save the man from the mob.
On 3 December 2021 in Sialkot, a Sri Lankan national, Priyanta Kumara, was lynched and burnt to death by a mob, alleging blasphemy. Kumara had allegedly torn down a poster of the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan inscribed verses from the Quran and thrown it in a dustbin.
In November last year, after police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda district refused to hand over a person accused of insulting the Quran to the mob, the attackers had burnt the police station.
In 2010, a similar incident took place in Sialkot when two brothers were lynched by a mob in the presence of police, on suspicion of being dacoits.