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'Blasphemer' dragged from police station and beaten to death: Senior officer
Associated Press - July 5, 2012
The incident highlighted the highly charged nature of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, under which anyone found guilty of insulting Islam's Prophet or the Koran can be sentenced to death. Sometimes, however, people take the matter into their own hands.
A senior police officer, Mohammed Azhar Gujar, said in the incident on Tuesday in Bahawalpur, a city in a deeply conservative part of central Pakistan, attackers stormed a police station where the man was being interrogated.
Gujar said the victim seemed to be mentally unstable. He was arrested after residents said he threw pages of the Koran into the street. While the man was being questioned, some people started making announcements over mosque loudspeakers, urging residents to go to the police station and punish him.
Within hours, thousands gathered outside and demanded the man be handed over to them. Gujar said police tried to protect him, but the mob turned violent.
They burned several police vehicles and wounded seven officers before grabbing the man and dragging him into the street, where he was beaten to death and his body set on fire. Gujar said the mob also attacked the house of an area police chief and burned his furniture and possessions.
It was unclear whether the man was Muslim, a member of Pakistan's Christian minority or belonged to another religion. His name was not released.
Pakistani Christians live in fear of being arrested under the blasphemy laws, which critics say are often misused to settle personal scores or family feuds.
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