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| India-Pakistan |
| Mob kills man, burns corpse for desecrating Quran |
| 2012-07-05 |
| [Dawn] A Pak police official says thousands of people beat a man to death, and burned his corpse after he was accused of desecrating the holy Koran. A senior police officer Mohammed Azhar Gujar said that in the incident on Tuesday in the Ahmedpur East area of Punjab's Bahawalpur district, attackers stormed a cop shoppe where the man was being interrogated. He said the victim seemed to be mentally unstable. He was placed in long-term storage Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! 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 cop shoppe 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 maimed 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 Mohammedan, a member of Pakistain's Christian minority or belonged to another religion. His name was not released. Pak Christians live in fear of being placed in long-term storage Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! under the blasphemy laws, which critics say are often misused to settle personal scores or family feuds. Efforts to change the laws have made little headway. Last year, two prominent Pak political figures who spoke out against the blasphemy laws were killed in attacks that raised concerns about the rise of religious extremism in Pakistain. On June 17, a crowd attempted to lynch a blasphemy suspect as they tried to storm into the cop shoppe where he was held. A group of lawyers attempted to attack the same suspect the next day following his production in court but coppers successfully foiled both attacks. In Quetta last month, a man was killed as a mob attacked a cop shoppe holding a "mentally retarded" man also suspected of desecrating the holy book. Former Punjab governor Salman Taseer was rubbed out in January last year by one of his police bodyguards for opposing the blasphemy law. The incident highlighted the highly charged nature of the country's blasphemy laws, under which anyone found guilty of insulting the prophet or the Koran can be sentenced to death. Sometimes, however, people take the matter into their own hands. During a visit to Pakistain in May, Gabriela Knaul, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, said lawyers are often reluctant to defend clients accused under the blasphemy laws because of intimidation, and judges are often pressured to convict. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Think of it as one less Muslim asshole, works for me. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2012-07-06 00:00 |
| #3 It's a gutter, folks. No way but down. |
| Posted by: newc 2012-07-05 17:16 |
| #2 Another victim of the religion of peace and tolerance. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2012-07-05 12:58 |
| #1 Islam's way of dealing with rational minds? |
| Posted by: gorb 2012-07-05 01:14 |