In the latest case of blasphemy-related killings in the country, a man was mob lynched in Pakistan on Saturday, 12 February, for allegedly burning pages of the Holy Quran.
The middle aged man was killed in Jungle Dera village, in Khanewal district in Punjab province, the Pakistani English language newspaper Dawn reported.
After a rumour spread that the man had torn some pages of the holy book and set them alight, hundreds of locals gathered, hung him from a tree and then attacked him with bricks until he died.
The suspected man kept claiming innocence, according to the Dawn report.
The police have reportedly arrested more than 80 people in connection with the killing, and the victim's body has been handed over to his family.
The funeral was held on Sunday.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government had "zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands & mob lynchings will be dealt with full severity of the law".
The killing comes just two months after Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, the 49-year-old Sri Lankan citizen, was lynched in the most barbaric manner at Sialkot, on 3 December, over blasphemy allegations.
He was reportedly killed and his body burnt for removing stickers of the previously banned extremist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) from his factory machinery before an appointment with international clients.
The gruesome mob lynching reignited conversations surrounding the extremely regressive blasphemy laws laid down in Pakistan's penal code.
You can read about the origins and usage of these laws in more detail here.
(With inputs from Dawn)
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