A mob of angry Muslims tortured, killed with stones and sticks and hanged a man accused of burning pages of the Koran in the city of Mian Chunnu, in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The man, mentally ill, according to locals walked into a mosque and burned a copy of the Koran. Taken by the crowd, he was tied to a stake in a room of the same mosque.
A video posted on social media shows people torturing the man with sticks and hitting him with stones. “Strict measures will be taken against those who want to replace the law,” Punjab police said in a statement. Dozens of people who participated in the lynching were arrested, announced Tahir Ashrafi, the premier’s special representative for religious harmony. The reaction of Prime Minister Imran Khan who tweeted: “We have zero tolerance for anyone who takes the place of the law and mass lynchings will be treated with the maximum severity required by law”.