The PM said he has ordered the Punjab police chief to submit a report on action taken against the perpetrators of the lynching in Mian Channu and the police officials @who failed in their duty”….reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned that mob lynchings will be dealt with the full severity of the law.
He was responding to the latest lynching in Khanewal’s Mian Channu where a man was stoned to death over alleged desecration of the Holy Quran, Samaa TV reported.
Several leading scholars, meanwhile, have condemned the lynching.
The lynching occurred in Jungle Dera village near Mian Channu where hundreds of locÂals gathered after the maghÂrib praÂyers on Saturday following annouÂnÂcement that a man had torn some pages of the Holy Quran and set them on fire, the report said.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister took notice of the incident and issued a warning in a tweet.
“We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands.”
He said mob lynchings will be dealt with the full severity of the law.
The PM said he has ordered the Punjab police chief to submit a report on action taken against the perpetrators of the lynching in Mian Channu and the police officials @who failed in their duty”.
At a press conference on Sunday, leading Islamic scholars condemned Khanewal mob lynching and other such incidents.
During the press conference, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Interfaith Harmony Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi said that PM Imran Khan was looking into the case.
The killing in Khanewal district comes at a time when in a similar event in Sialkot last December, a Sri Lankan engineer was killed by manufacturing workers for blasphemy, reported the newspaper.
Notably, Pakistan reported a total of 1,415 cases of blasphemy in the country since 1947, a think tank, Centre for Research and Security Studies, said.
According to the think tank report, a total of 18 women and 71 men were extra-judicially killed over blasphemy from 1947 to 2021. However, as per the think tank, the actual number of cases is believed to be higher as not all cases are reported.
“The actual number is believed to be higher because not all blasphemy cases get reported in the press,” the report said, adding more than 70 per cent of the accused were reported from Punjab.
Recently, a sessions court in Pakistan’s Ghotki had sentenced a Hindu man to life in prison on charges of blasphemy. Nautan Lal has been fined Rs 50,000 as well.