LAHORE: The Punjab police on Sunday arrested 15 suspects who allegedly played a primary role in stoning to death a middle-aged man in Punjab’s Khanewal district on Saturday over allegation of desecration of the Holy Quran.
The killing comes on the heels of an identical incident in Sialkot where a Sri Lankan engineer was lynched by factory workers on Dec 3 last year on blasphemy allegation.
Claiming that a significant progress has been made in the tragic Khanewal episode, a spokesperson for the Punjab police said at least 15 suspects who played a key role in the lynching had been arrested while operations were under way to apprehend other ‘main culprits’, who are yet to be identified.
He identified the main culprits as Mohammad Yaqub, Kashif, Mohammad Riaz, Saqlain Mohammad Shaan, Asif, Nadeem, Qaiser Nazir, Abdul Ghani, Mohammad Aslam, Mohammad Amir, Ejaz, Mehboob-ur-Rehman, Mohammad Bilal and Ali Sher.
The spokesperson said the arrested suspects could be seen torturing victim Aslam with bricks and sticks and they have been booked under provisions of serious crimes such as section-7 of the anti terrorism. “The process of arresting and identifying the accused is underway. However, police have so far arrested a total of 85 suspects, of them 15 are primary suspects,” he added.
According to the spokesperson, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and IG Punjab Rao Sardar Ali are personally supervising the entire operation and police teams are conducting raids to nab more accused. He said that all the miscreants who took law into their own hands would be brought to the book and legal proceedings shall be completed as soon as possible.
Earlier in the day, Punjab IGP Rao Sardar Ali submitted a preliminary investigation report to Punjab CM Usman Buzdar. According to the report, a case was registered against 33 suspects and 300 unknown persons while sections related to heinous crimes and terrorism were also added.
The report informed the chief minister that the police have already conducted more than 120 raids at various locations and detained several suspects while more raids were underway. A secret police operation was carried out throughout the night with senior police officers present in the field, it added. The report said a forensic analysis of the incident’s footages would help identify the main culprits and determine their role.
The incident took place in Jungle Dera village where hundreds of locals gathered after Maghrib prayers following announcements that a man had torn some pages of the Holy Quran and later set them on fire. With no one ready to listen to the suspect, who reportedly claimed innocence, the villagers first hanged him with a tree and then hit him with bricks, until he died, according to the CCTV footages.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan took notice of the mob lynching and said that “zero tolerance” would be shown to the perpetrators and action would be taken against police officials who “failed in their duty”. “I have asked Punjab IG for a report on action taken against perpetrators of the lynching in Mian Channu and against the police who failed in their duty, he twitted.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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