Sheikh Rashid condemns mob lynching incident in Mian Channu

Minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid said that all those involved in the Mian Channu mob lynching incident would be brought to justice as none were allowed to take the law into their hands.

Strongly condemning the incident in a statement, he said that police were carrying out operations to arrest the perpetrators, whereas the culprits would be identified with the assistance of the NADRA.

Read more: 62 suspects arrested in Khanewal lunching case: SAPM Ashrafi

Dozens of people had been arrested over the lynching, which happened on Saturday evening in a remote village in Punjab province, after it was alleged that the victim had burned some pages of the Quran, according to Tahir Ashrafi, the prime minister’s special representative on religious harmony.

Law-enforcement agencies were also monitoring hundreds of other suspects, he said, according to AFP.

The killing came just over two months after a Sri Lankan factory manager was beaten to death and set ablaze by a mob over blasphemy in Sialkot city, also in Punjab.

“Who could possibly justify the barbaric act of stoning to death a mentally ill person?” Ashrafi told a televised press conference in Khanewal district, where the lynching happened.

“The man’s family say that he was mentally ill and his mental health wasn’t right for the past 10 to 15 years.”

“This is not the religion of my Prophet, to kill people under your own interpretation of religion,” he added.

On Twitter, Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government had “zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands”, adding that “mob lynchings will be dealt with full severity of the law”.

He said that he had asked Punjab officials for a “report on action taken against perpetrators of the lynching… & against the police who failed in their duty”.

Read more: PM iterates ‘zero tolerance’ against mob lynching after Khanewal incident

With additional input from AFP.