Authorities in northwestern Pakistan reported Thursday that an enraged crowd stormed a police station, seized a detainee facing blasphemy charges and killed him.

The evening violence erupted in Swat District, a popular tourist spot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after local announcements that a tourist had desecrated the Quran. Residents tortured the man before area police took him into custody and moved him to their detention facility.

Witnesses and officials said a mob later gathered outside the police station, demanding the man be swiftly brought to justice for insulting Islam’s holy book. Police used aerial fire to disperse protesters but failed to prevent them from assaulting and setting fire to the building and police vehicles before taking “the suspect away.”

Zahidullah Khan, the district police chief, told local media that the crowd had also set fire to the suspect’s body after beating him to death. He added that the unrest resulted in several injuries.

Videos shared on social media showed a crowd gathered around a burning body in the middle of the street. VOA could not immediately ascertain the veracity of the footage from independent sources.

Khan said police reinforcements later arrived in the area and efforts were under way to defuse the tensions.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in majority-Muslim Pakistan, and mere allegations have led to mobs lynching scores of suspects – even some in police custody. Insulting the Quran or Islamic beliefs is punishable by death under the country's blasphemy laws, though no one has ever been officially executed.

Last month, hundreds of people gathered in a Christian settlement in the central Pakistani city of Sargodha and killed a Christian man in his early 70s after accusing him of desecrating the Quran.

In August 2023, in a similar blasphemy accusation, thousands of Muslim protesters attacked a Christian neighborhood. They burned scores of properties, including 21 churches, over allegations that two Christian brothers had desecrated the Quran.

Domestic and international rights groups have long demanded Pakistan reform its blasphemy laws, arguing they are often used to fulfill personal vendettas and disputes and intimidate religious minorities.

Critics say that hundreds of suspects, mostly Muslims, are languishing in jails in Pakistan because fear of retaliation from religious groups deters judges from moving their trials forward. (VOA, excluding headline)

•FILE PHOTO: Protesters rally against a woman arrested on blasphemy charges in Lahore, Pakistan, April 17, 2023. Officials in northwest Pakistan said June 20, 2024, that a crowd stormed a police station, took a detainee facing blasphemy charges and killed him.

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