ISLAMABAD: Almost two and a half months after the Sialkot lynching incident, an enraged mob in Khanewal town of Punjab stoned a man to death over allegations of the desecration of Holy Quran, prompting Prime Minister Imran Khan to take notice of the incident on Sunday, reiterating that the perpetrators would be dealt with with ‘full severity of the law.’
“We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands and mob lynching will be dealt with full severity of the law,” the premier said in a statement.
He sought a report from Inspector General Police Punjab Rao Sardar Ali Khan on action taken against perpetrators of the lynching in Mian Channu and against the police who failed in their duty, the statement added.
Separately, Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar also sought report from the IGP Punjab
“The mob lynching of a man in Mian Channu is condemnable and cannot be allowed to go unpunished. Punjab government must immediately take action against the police that watched it happen and the perpetrators. Laws exist - the police must enforce these laws and not allow mobs to rule the day,” Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari tweeted.
Chairman Pakistan Ulema Council Tahir Ashrafi, among others, also condemned the incident.
Sialkot lynching case: Police arrest 33 more suspects
The lynching incident took place in Jungle Dera village in Khanewal on Saturday evening where hundreds of locals were said to have gathered after Maghrib prayers following announcements that a man had torn some pages of the Holy Quran and later set them on fire.
The victim reportedly claimed innocence but the enraged mob was not ready to listen to him. The villagers first hanged him from a tree and then hit him with bricks till his death.
On December 3 last year, hundreds of factory workers attacked a foreigner in Sialkot accusing him of removing and tearing down a poster that carried a religious inscription from a factory office wall.
The horrifying footages that went viral on social media showed that the helpless victim named Priyantha Kumara, a Sri Lankan national, was not only beaten to death but also set ablaze while some people in the mob took selfies with the burnt body and chanted slogans after this heinous act. The victim was the general manager in the same factory.
The lynching incident sent shockwaves worldwide including Pakistan where the government swung into action to take on the perpetrators.
Since then several people were arrested including the main accused. Their trial is pending in a court.
The PM condemned what he described was the ‘horrific vigilante attack,’ announcing that he was overseeing the investigations and arrests were in process.
“All those responsible shall be punished with full severity of law,” he said then. Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has also directed: “all out support to civil administration to arrest perpetrators of this heinous crime and bring them to justice.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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