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Pakistani police have registered an FIR against a mob that lynched a tourist in the Swat for allegedly desecrating the Quran. According to multiple reports, the tourist was burnt alive by the angry mob.

 

Muhammad Ismail, a 40-year-old resident of Sialkot in Punjab province, was dragged out of the police station, beaten with sticks, and then torched. The mob even burnt the police station down, Dawn reported. 

 

The incident occurred on Thursday in the Madyan tehsil of Swat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

 

Warning: Graphic images

Another day, another act of cruelty & extremism in the name of religion in Pakistan. A local tourist was lynched, and his body was set on fire by a mob in #Swat Valley.

When allegations of desecrating holy book were raised against him, he was taken to… pic.twitter.com/dXZKBeLGYO

— Absa Komal (@AbsaKomal) June 20, 2024

 

He faced allegations of burning pages from the holy book of Islam, resulting in injuries to five police officers and 11 locals. 

 

The authorities have reported that they have lodged a First Information Report against the crowd. 

 

According to the police, Ismail's family has publicly distanced themselves from him and his alleged activities. Ismail had been residing alone at a hotel in Madyan town in Swat Valley since June 18.

 

Meanwhile, a video statement from the man's mother, obtained by the police, said that the family had distanced themselves from him. She stated that her son had lived in Malaysia for much of his life.

 

"His father died 30 years ago. He was in Malaysia. When he came back, the family got him married. He kept fighting with us and then left one and a half years ago," she said in the video shared by the police.

 

In the video, she is also heard saying, "We are Ahle Sunnat. We are Muslim. We do no wrongdoing. We have nothing to do with him. What he did or not, his relationship with us ended." 

 

The Swat police also obtained a copy of a complaint registered against Ismail in July 2022 at a Sialkot police station. The complaint filed by the mother alleged that her son assaulted her and his brother with an iron rod and a pistol butt. It also mentioned that he was a drug addict and had issued threats to family members.

 

The family gave the police a newspaper clipping with an ad where the mother publicly distanced herself from her son.

 

The authorities determined that items found in the suspect's hotel room were blasphemous after he had divorced his wife.

 

Zahidullah, the District Police Officer (DPO) in Swat, mentioned that initially, Ismail was taken into custody by the police and kept in the police station when the alleged desecration incident was reported. However, when the incident was announced from mosques using loudspeakers in the market, thousands of people gathered outside the police station.

 

Soon after, the angry mob demanded that the police hand over the suspect to them. On refusal, a fierce exchange of fire took place between the local people and the police. After that, the mob torched the police station, forcing the cops on duty to flee for their lives.

 

"After that, the people entered the police station and shot and killed the suspect and dragged his body to the Madyan Ada, where they hanged him. The people also set the police station and police vehicles on fire while the policemen on duty fled. Meanwhile, more police force was called to control the mob," the officer was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune newspaper.