Day of shame for Pakistan: Imran Khan on Sialkot lynching
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday (November 4) called the lynching of a man accused of blasphemy “a day of shame for Pakistan” and said he would personally oversee an investigation into the “horrific vigilante attack”.
A Sri Lankan factory manager was accused of blasphemy and was beaten to death and set ablaze by a mob in Sialkot on Friday.
“Let there be no mistake all those responsible will be punished with full severity of the law,” Khan tweeted.
The horrific vigilante attack on factory in Sialkot & the burning alive of Sri Lankan manager is a day of shame for Pakistan. I am overseeing the investigations & let there be no mistake all those responsible will be punished with full severity of the law. Arrests are in progress
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 3, 2021
The incident took place in Sialkot on Friday, about 200 kilometres southeast of the capital Islamabad.
Several video clips shared on social media showed a mob beating the prone victim while chanting slogans against blasphemy.
Other clips showed the man’s body set ablaze, as well as the overturned wreckage of what was said to be his car.
Many in the mob made no attempt to hide their identity and some took selfies in front of the burning corpse.
Pakistan Punjab government spokesman Hassaan Khawar told reporters in Lahore that the police has already arrested 50 people.
“CCTV footage is being carefully looked into as we have been directed to complete the inquiry within 48 hours,” Khawar said.
The slogans chanted in the social media videos were the same used by supporters of the extremist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan.
The TLP has in the past paralysed the country with protests, including an anti-France campaign after Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last year republished cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
The party was unbanned last month and its leader freed from detention after another period of civil unrest, in which seven police officers were killed.
In April 2017 a mob lynched university student Mashal Khan who was accused of posting blasphemous content online.
A Christian couple was lynched then burnt in a kiln in Punjab in 2014 after being falsely accused of desecrating the Quran.
(With inputs from Agencies)
