Mob kills a man accused of blasphemy at Imran Khan’s party rally
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Peshawar: A man who was participating in a rally for Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's party was killed by a mob after accusing him of blasphemy on Saturday.
A video of the lynching showed the mob beating the man just as the police were vainly trying to intervene, according to news agency AFP.
The incident reportedly had taken place on Saturday in the Sawal Dher area of Mardan city in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during a rally organized by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
The man identified as Nigar Alam was to deliver the concluding prayer when the crowd went berserk taking offence at his comments, according to the report.
Despite he fled the scene, the mob chased and tracked him down to a relative’s house.
District police chief Najeeb-ur-Rehman reportedly said that people barged inside the house after climbing over the wall, before beating him to death.
The officer reportedly said that the mob was so agitated that police had hard time retrieving the body of the man.
PTI leadership made no comment on the incident and it is reported that PTI leader Imran Khan was not present at the rally.
Proven or not, allegations of blasphemy can trigger violence with frenzied mobs chasing and killing the victim in Pakistan.
More than 2000 have been accused of blasphemy since 1987 in Pakistan, and lynch mobs killed at least 88 people in the same period, according to rights group, the Centre for Social Justice.
