Khanewal lynching incident: Punjab police arrest 10 more suspects

LAHORE: The Punjab police on Tuesday rounded up 10 more primary suspects in the case of lynching of a man over blasphemy allegations in a village of Punjab’s Khanewal district last week.

According to a statement issued by the Punjab police spokesperson, the recent arrests have taken the number of total detained suspects in the case to 112, among whom 31 are primary suspects. Initially, police had arrested 85 suspects after Prime Minister Imran Khan had taken notice of the incident, and took six more into custody on Monday, he said, adding that the latest arrests were made in raids on different locations.

According to the spokesperson, all the arrested suspects would be presented before an anti-terrorism court in Multan on Tuesday. He said the Punjab IGP has directed the Multan regional police officer and Khanewal DPO district police officer to personally monitor the case’s probe.

The lynching incident had taken place on Saturday in Khanewal’s Jungle Dera village when a middle-aged man was stoned to death by a mob over alleged desecration of the Holy Quran.

The first information report of the incident was registered at Tulamba police station on the complaint of police officer Munawwar Hussain under Sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly of people), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 302 (intentional murder) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The FIR stated that when police officials reached the village, a man accused of burning the Holy Quran was found tied up with ropes and being subjected to violence by a large mob. It further states that the police tried to placate the crowd but to no avail, adding that 33 identified suspects and around 200-300 others eventually killed the man after beating him with rods, sticks and bricks.

“The suspects hung his body from a tree which spread immense fear,” the FIR said, adding that the body was recovered after much effort and taken for a post-mortem examination. The police officers were also subjected to violence by the suspects due to which a sub-inspector suffered injuries and required medical treatment, according to the FIR.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022