Courtesy Sputnik

Last December, hundreds of Islamists lynched and set fire to the body of a Sri Lankan factory manager in Pakistan’s Sialkot district after he removed stickers of an extreme right-wing party featuring Quranic verses from factory machinery. Prime Minister Imran Khan had called the incident a “day of shame for Pakistan.”After Punjab police failed to save a man who allegedly burned pages of the Quran from the fury of hundreds of villagers in the district of Khanewal, Pakistan PM Imran Khan on Sunday demanded the local authorities ensure the “full severity of the law” is imposed on those responsible for the mob lynching.

“We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands, and mob lynchings will be dealt with [the] full severity of the law,” Khan said on Sunday.Khan also sought a report from the Punjab police concerning the officers who “failed in their duty” to protect the factory manager.On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered in the remote village of Mian Channu village in the district of Khanewal following an announcement from the mosque that a middle-aged man had torn pages from the Quran pages and burned them.Police said officers rushed to the scene and arrested the alleged perpetrator. However, the crowd snatched the man from police custody and lynched him.In a series of tweets, the police claimed that they demanded that the angry crowd hand over the man, but to no avail.”The suspects hung his body from a tree which spread immense fear,” the police report said, adding that the body was recovered hours later.Punjab Province police have launched massive raids across the region and detained 62 suspects so far. A case against 33 known suspects and 300 unknown people has been registered.

“Punjab government must immediately take action against the Police that watched it happen & the perpetrators. Laws exist – the Police must enforce these laws and not allow mobs to rule the day,” Shireen Mazari, federal minister for Human Rights, said.The incident is a stark reminder of the lynching of Priyantha Kumara, a Christian from Sri Lanka who was set on fire by mobs in the Sialkot district of Pakistan on 3 December 2021.Kumara had allegedly removed stickers linked to an extreme Islamist party from inside the factory where he worked as a manager. The perpetrators claimed that Quranic verses were featured on these stickers.