QUETTA: A 10-year boy was killed and five others were wounded Thursday when a mob attacked a police station in an attempt to lynch a Hindu man charged with blasphemy in southwest Pakistan.
It was the third major vigilante attack linked to accusations of blasphemy in less than a month, as law enforcement agencies struggle to deal with a surge in violence.
The latest incident occurred in the town of Hub in Balochistan province following the arrest of Prakash Kumar, a 34-year-old member of the Hindu religious minority.
Kumar, a crockery shop owner, was detained on Tuesday for allegedly posting an incendiary image on social media. A First Information Report was registered against Kumar on the complaint of various community members under Sections 295-A and 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy law. “When news of his arrest was published in local newspapers on Thursday, a crowd of some 500 people including traders, clerics and politicians surrounded the town’s police station to demand he be handed over,” police official Abdul Sattar told AFP.
When police refused, the mob turned on them, beating up officers and local government officials before opening fire with guns. A 10-year-old boy was killed and five others were wounded in the melee, he added.
Jam Mohammad, a second police official, confirmed the account, adding, “The siege went on for about three hours and the mob went on a rampage demanding Kumar be handed over.”
Order was restored once the government sent in paramilitary troops to disperse the mob, which police said was led by an influential cleric as well as Zia Shehzad, a politician from the ruling PML-N political party.
Search operations were underway to arrest those suspected of inciting the mob to violence, police said.
Hub Circle Deputy Sub-Inspector Police Jan Mohammad Khosa as well as Police Constable Mukhtiar Ahmed, and Additional Deputy Commissioner Tariq Javed Mengal were injured in the violence, along with an Edhi rescue official and a child.
The child later succumbed to his injuries, as he had received bullet wounds which turned fatal. The deceased boy is yet to be identified.
Shops owned by members of the Hindu community were shut down and all roads connecting Sindh to Balochistan via Hub were closed for operations until further notice.
