A Pakistani man accused of desecrating the Koran was lynched to death today by a mob that stormed a police station in Swat district and dragged him out. The attackers then set the body on fire, a police official told AFP.

“On Thursday afternoon, residents of Madian” in northeastern Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, “arrested the man, accusing him of burning a copy of the Koran,” a police official told AFP, clarifying that the accused was not a local.

“Police officers intervened and took him to the police station”, which was, however, besieged by an enraged crowd. Several men broke into the department and, although police officers fired in the air to prevent them, they forcibly removed the accused and “lynched him to death,” he added. “Then they poured gasoline on his lifeless body and set it on fire,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where even accusations without evidence often spark violent incidents.

In late May, a Christian accused of burning pages of the Koran was lynched by a mob in Punjab (east) and finally succumbed to his injuries in early June.

In the same area, in February 2023, an enraged mob beat to death a Muslim who had also been accused of “desecrating the Koran”.