(UCA News) On June 20, a Muslim mob in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province brutally killed and burned the body of another Muslim man they accused of burning a Quran.
Mohammed Suleiman, 35, was attacked by hundreds of angry Islamists in Madyan, a popular highland resort town in the Swat Valley, a province that borders Afghanistan.
Swat district police officer Zahidullah Khan said Suleiman was a tourist visiting the scenic valley from Sialkot in Punjab when he was attacked.
Khan said police rescued the victim and took him into police custody, but an angry mob stormed the police station and beat him to death on suspicion of blasphemy.
“An announcement was made over the sound system of a nearby mosque, stirring up thousands of people. It all happened within 45 minutes,” Khan told UCA News.
“They stormed out from surrounding rooftops, smashed gates, ransacked offices, set fire to buildings and burnt police vehicles and motorbikes. Other vehicles were also damaged. Eight police officers were injured. The attackers have been identified from CCTV footage and videos on social media,” he added.
Khan said the body had been taken to an undisclosed location.
“We have recovered some evidence but we cannot make it public due to strong religious sentiments,” he added.
Local Muslims reportedly rallied in the area after Friday prayers to condemn the alleged blasphemy.
Madyan market was closed and a large police force was deployed in Swat district to prevent further violence.
The Swat Valley, famous for its beautiful scenery, gained notoriety after being occupied and used as a base by the Pakistani Taliban before being driven out by the army.
Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani student who later became a women’s rights and education activist, was shot in the head by the Taliban in the Swat Valley in 2012. She survived and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, aged 17.
Swat-based human rights lawyer Jigar Shah said the mob lynching, based on the desecration of the Quran, was shocking and astonishing.
“There are so many unanswered questions. Why did tourists from Punjab choose our soil to commit an act of blasphemy,” he told UCA News.
“This tragedy will affect tourism and social life in our valley, which has already been hit by the Taliban. Infrastructure has yet to be repaired after the 2022 floods, the worst in the country’s history,” he lamented.
Blasphemy is punishable by death or life imprisonment in Pakistan, but no one has ever been executed for blasphemy.
The South Asian country of 241 million people has seen a number of mob lynchings in recent years.
The Islamic state’s strict blasphemy laws are often used to settle personal scores against minority communities – Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Ahmadiyyas.
Last month, an elderly Christian man, Nazir Masih, from Sargodha in Punjab, was attacked after being accused of committing blasphemy by burning a Quran. He died in hospital on June 3.
When mobs attack, “no one waits for due process of law. They become their own prosecutors and enforcers,” Imtiaz Alam, executive director of the South Asian Free Media Association, told UCA News.
