As Minorities Suffer In Pakistan, Imran Khan Attempts Damage Control After Punjab Lynching

By Bhavya Sukheja

After a man was tortured and killed by a mob in Mian Channu, Pakistan PM condemned the incident and said that the mob lynching will be dealt with full severity.

After a homeless beggar accused of blasphemy was tortured and killed by a mob in Mian Channu in Pakistan’s Punjab on Saturday, PM Imran Khan condemned the incident and said that the mob lynching will be dealt with “full severity of the law”. According to local media reports, a mob in Punjab’s Khanewal district tortured and killed a man accused of burning pages of the Holy Quran. The Islamist mob stoned the man to death, following which his corpse was hung on the tree.His response came two hours after Republic exposed the incident in Pakistan. The embarrassed Imran khan who attacked India on hijab was forced to eat crow on attacks on people over religion in Pakistan. Now, even though this is not the first incident in Pakistan of citizens becoming judges and executioners, Imran Khan has stated that the ruling PTI-led government has “zero tolerance” for anyone taking the law into their own hands. The Pakistani leader assured that the mob lynchings will be dealt with the full severity of the law. He also informed that he has asked the Punjab Inspector General for a report on the action taken against perpetrators of Saturday’s lynching and against police who failed in their duty.

According to local media reports, the incident took place at Mian Channu’s Tulamba Madrasa at Khanewal. It happened in front of a police station, where the victim was taken after people accused him of trying to tear off the pages of the Holy Quran inside the mosque. In order to protect themselves from the angry mob, the local police allegedly allowed the accused to leave the police station where the mob was present.

‘Sialkot like incident’ The victim was dragged by the crowd when he came out of the police station, while the cops allegedly played the role of a silent spectator. He was lynched and was tied to a pole and left to die. Local Pakistani media outlets said that Saturday’s incident was a “Sialkot like incident” when an angry mob killed a Sri Lankan man for alleged blasphemy.

Back in December 2021, Sri Lankan man Priyantha Diyawadana was tortured, killed and then set on fire after being accused of blasphemy over some posters that he had allegedly taken down. The widely reported incident involved a Sri Lankan national who worked as general manager of a factory of the industrial engineering company Rajco Industries in Sialkot, Punjab. The horrific images and videos also emerged on social media that showed Diyawadana being thrown on the floor where hundreds of people had started tearing his clothes and violently beating him.

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