A Lie Spread Online, and a Man Was Burned Alive
He was a tourist, held in a police station in Pakistan's Swat Valley. In June 2024 a mob, inflamed by a false blasphemy accusation spreading on social media, stormed the building, dragged him out and burned him alive. The killing was filmed and shared online, one of several such lynchings reported in the country that year.
A rumor, then a mob
On the evening of 20 June 2024, a man was killed by a crowd in Madyan, a town in the Swat Valley of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after he was accused of desecrating the Quran. Police had taken the man, described in reports as a tourist from Sialkot in Punjab, into custody at the Madyan police station. Hundreds of people then gathered outside, according to Al Jazeera, attacked the building and dragged the man out.
The district police officer, Zahid Ullah, said the mob “pelted stones at the police station and tortured the accused before taking him outside and burning him at a nearby bridge,” according to Arab News. The mob also set fire to the police station and a police vehicle. Several people were injured in the unrest.
Filmed and shared
The killing did not stay in Madyan. “Videos circulating on social media show a large crowd chanting religious slogans and surrounding a burning body,” Al Jazeera reported. Footage documenting the burning police station and the scene of the killing spread online, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human-rights organization that monitors freedom of religion.
The Swat killing was not isolated. Weeks earlier, in Sargodha in Punjab province, a mob attacked Nazir Masih, a 70-year-old Christian man, over a blasphemy allegation on 25 May 2024; he died of his injuries on 2 June, according to Dawn. Rights groups have long warned that unverified blasphemy accusations in Pakistan can spread rapidly and draw crowds before any facts are established. “Pakistan must do far more to prevent such horrific acts of violence, including by ending any and all impunity that surrounds those who take the law into their own hands,” Mervyn Thomas, founder president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said in a statement.
Parliament responds
Later that month, Pakistan's National Assembly passed a resolution condemning the killings. The measure, moved by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, said the chamber “takes serious notice of the recent mob lynchings of our citizens accused of offenses in Swat and Sargodha,” according to Arab News. It “strongly condemns these horrific and tragic incidents which cannot be tolerated in any civilized society.”
The resolution said the right to life is the most cherished right enshrined in Pakistan's constitution and urged federal and provincial authorities to ensure “the safety and security of all our citizens, including religious minorities and other vulnerable segments of society,” per Arab News. It also called for those involved to be identified, investigated and prosecuted. Video of the Swat killing continued to circulate online after the vote, a pattern researchers say can prolong the reach of a single act of violence far beyond the place where it occurred.