PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A Muslim mob in northwestern Pakistan stormed into a police station on Thursday, abducted a man being held there and lynched him for allegedly desecrating the Quran, Islam’s holy book.
The attackers also set fire to a police station in the town of Madyan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and set fire to a police vehicle parked there, according to local police official Rahim Ullah.
The man who was killed, Mohammed Ismail, was a tourist staying at a hotel in the town when some local residents attacked him and accused him of blasphemy.
Ullah said officers took the man to a police station for protection but a mob swelled and chased them. The mob then stormed the station, abducted Ismail, beat him to death, burned his body and left it in the road.
Ullah said additional police forces had arrived in Madyan to quell the situation.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the attackers had been arrested.
Attacks on people accused of blasphemy are commonplace in the conservative Muslim country, where blasphemy can carry the death penalty. International and domestic human rights groups say blasphemy charges are often used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores.
Last month, a mob in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province attacked a Christian man, Nazir Masih, 72, for allegedly desecrating the Quran. He later died in hospital.
