Amnesty International today demanded that members of a baying mob who lynched a man accused of breaching Pakistan's blasphemy laws be brought to justice as a matter of urgency.
On Wednesday, July 4, residents in the town of Channigoth in Bahawalpur, Punjab province accused a homeless man of burning a Quran, an offense punishable by life imprisonment. Local police detained the man, whose identity remains unknown, but before they could investigate the claim, a group numbering more than a thousand gathered outside the station demanding that police kill the suspect.
When police attempts to calm the crowd failed, the group attacked and eventually dragged the man out of the station and beat him to death. Witnesses said people poured gasoline on his dead body and set it alight. [Amnesty International USA] Read more
