A traveler in his 30s who was murdered by an angry mob on Friday, 21st Dec 2012 in Seeta village village of Sindh, a southern province of Pakistan. The traveller had sought a night's sleep in the local mosque, as is customary for out-of-town strangers to do in this part of the world.
He offered Isha prayers (on Thursday) and spent the night here. When (worshippers) came to the mosque for Fajr prayers (on Friday morning), the local imam and others found charred copies of the Holy Quran. The visitor for some reason allegedly lit one or more of copies of the Quran on fire.
The traveller was handed over to police after beaten by locals. And the imam of the mosque announced the incident on horn loudspeakers. More number of people assembled and about 1000 people attacked the police station. A group of 30 people led the mob, dragged the traveller out of police station and brought him to the center of the village. They assualted him brutally, poured kerosine and burnt him.
The suspect spoke in Saraiki accent. Saraiki is a Punjabi language group and is also spoken among many Hindus in the region. In the brief time that he was in the custody of the police, the man in custody, he refused to give up his identity. He is said to be mentally unstable and he was unable to provide basic information about himself like name and address.
An average of 53 people a year have faced blasphemy charges between 1986, when the law went into effect, and 2010. Of these, 52 people were murdered by angry vigilantes before their cases could be handled by the courts. About 1,400 blasphemy cases have been brought before Pakistan's courts and 15 people are on death row after having been found guilty of blasphemy. Local Muslim preachers (imam) play a prominent role in strengthening the charges of blasphemy and provocate local people to put pressure on the authorities. In many cases, vested interests misuse the laws to settle scores or to prosecute minorities.
Police have arrested more than 100 people in the village and neighboring areas. Immediately after the arrest, women of the village have protested in the street against the police action with copies of Quaran in their hands.
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