More than 100 people have been arrested in Pakistan after the murder of a Sri Lankan factory manager who was beaten to death and set on fire by a mob who accused him of blasphemy, local officials said on Saturday.
This savage murder, documented by videos relayed by social networks, shocked, Prime Minister Imran Khan evoking a
"day of shame for Pakistan"
.
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The question of blasphemy is particularly sensitive in Pakistan, where often unproven allegations of insulting Islam have repeatedly led to deadly lynchings in recent years.
It is regularly used as a pretext in disputes that initially have nothing to do with religion, underline human rights organizations.
Sometimes even unproven allegations of offending Islam can lead to assassinations and lynchings.
Capital punishment for "blasphemy" provided for in the law
Pakistani law, fiercely defended by Islamist parties, provides for the death penalty for anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.
However, no convict of blasphemy has so far been executed.
Opponents of this law accuse him of being used to settle personal conflicts or violate the rights of religious minorities.
"Today's incident shows how urgent it is to correct an environment that allows abuse and puts lives at risk,"
Amnesty International South Asia wrote on Twitter.
The murder took place on Friday in Sialkot, Punjab province, about 200 km southeast of the capital Islamabad, after rumors spread that the factory manager was
"guilty of blasphemy"
. according to the police.
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"A rumor spread in the factory that the official tore up a religious poster and threw it in a trash can,
" Zulfiqar Ali, a local police officer, told AFP.
Up to 120 people, including one of the main suspects, have been arrested following the murder, police spokesman Khurram Shehzad told AFP.
According to Tahir Ashrafi, the prime minister's special representative for harmony between religions, the workers at the factory had complained before the murder of the excessive severity of the person responsible.
"Police experts are investigating the case, exploring several avenues, including the possibility that factory workers have used the excuse of religion to take revenge against the person responsible,"
said Tahir Ashrafi.
Videos posted on Twitter show the victim being beaten by individuals, some of whom shout slogans denouncing blasphemy.
Other images then reveal his completely burnt body in front of a crowd of several dozen men.
There are many who make no effort to hide their faces and even go so far as to take selfies in front of the burning body.
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"The crowd watched it all in silence, and no one tried to come to their aid,"
Malik Naseem Awan, a lawyer from Sialkot, told AFP, saying he was deeply shocked.
Almost all political and religious parties, as well as the powerful army, condemned the murder.
A Pakistani official told AFP that Islamabad had assured Sri Lankan diplomats that
"all those implicated in this heinous crime"
would be
"brought to justice"
.
On Sunday, November 28, thousands of people attacked and torched a police station in northwest Pakistan, after asking police to hand over a man accused of burning the Koran.
Several precedents
In June 2017, 23-year-old Mashal Khan was beaten and shot and killed before being thrown from the second floor of his university residence and killed.
Police then determined that he was innocent of the blasphemy charges against him.
A young Christian and his pregnant wife, accused of desecrating the Koran, were beaten to death in 2014 by a mob who then burned their bodies in the oven of a brickyard in Punjab.
The emblematic case of Asia Bibi
Likewise, Christian Asia Bibi was sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010, after being accused by two Muslim village women, with whom she worked, of having
"insulted the prophet"
during a quarrel over a glass of wine. 'water.
His case had become emblematic of the abuses of the law on blasphemy in Pakistan, via the dissemination of false accusations.
The 50-year-old was eventually acquitted in 2019 by the Pakistani Supreme Court, the country's highest judicial body, after spending more than eight years on death row.