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A police officer shot and killed a person accused of blasphemy inside a police station within the south-western Pakistani metropolis of Quetta, an area official has stated.
The useless man was recognized as Syed Khan.
Khan had been arrested the day earlier than, after officers snatched him from an enraged mob that claimed he had insulted Islam’s Prophet Mohammed. Native residents claimed he had used derogatory remarks in opposition to the prophet and went after him.
After he was arrested, the mob surrounded the station, demanding police hand Mr Khan again to them so they may kill him.
At one level, a person hurled a grenade on the station on Wednesday whereas a bunch briefly blocked a key highway within the metropolis, demanding punishment.
The group dispersed later within the day after officers managed to calm them down.
Based on police official Mohammad Khurram, the officer concerned within the deadly capturing has been arrested. Mr Khurram didn’t present additional particulars.
Killings of suspects whereas in police custody are uncommon in Pakistan, the place accusations of blasphemy – generally even simply rumours – are widespread and sometimes spark rioting and rampage by mobs that may escalate into lynching and killings.
Beneath Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy legal guidelines, anybody discovered responsible of insulting Islam or Islamic spiritual figures could be sentenced to loss of life – although authorities have but to hold out a loss of life sentences for blasphemy.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in assaults on blasphemy suspects in recent times.
In June, a mob broke right into a police station within the north-western city of Madyan, snatched a person who was held there after which lynched him over allegations that he had desecrated Islam’s holy ebook, the Koran.
The attackers additionally torched the station and burned police automobiles parked there. The killed man was a vacationer staying at a resort on the town when the locals turned on him and accused him of blasphemy.
Final 12 months, a mob within the jap Punjab province attacked church buildings and houses of Christians after claiming they noticed an area Christian and his pal desecrating pages from a Koran.
The assault within the district of Jaranwala drew nationwide condemnation, however Christians say the lads linked to the violence are but to be placed on trial.
A policeman in 2011 killed a former governor of Punjab province after accusing him of blasphemy. That officer, Mumtaz Qadri, was later sentenced to loss of life and hanged.
Nonetheless, help for him grew after his hanging, with tens of hundreds attending his funeral within the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi. Many in Punjab nonetheless as we speak thought of him a martyr.
Quetta, a conservative metropolis in south-western Pakistan can be the capital of the restive Balochistan province, the place militant teams stage close to day by day assaults and the place separatists have waged a decades-long insurgency in opposition to the federal government in Islamabad.
