Police have arrested more than two dozen people over their alleged involvement in the lynching and killing of a person and arson attack on a police station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat, police told Geo News Sunday.
The police have shifted the 23 arrested individuals to an unknown location while efforts are underway to arrest others who were allegedly involved in the incident.
The arrests come after violent mob had beaten a local tourist to death on Thursday night after accusing him of desecrating the Holy Quran, and later set his body as well as the Madyan Police Station ablaze.
A day earlier, a report by a federal agency had revealed that the hotel management had asked the deceased, accused of blasphemy, to open the door.
The accused, the report added, had then opened the door and denied the allegations of blasphemy, after which the police took him to the police station — a move criticised in the report which termed it as a “grave” mistake.
The report further says that neither the station house officer (SHO) of the said police station took guidance from the higher-ups on the matter nor shifted the suspect to a “safe” spot.
Also, the absence of high police officials or political leaders during the mob violence also contributed to the loss, it added.
Furthermore, the report mentions that the accused was in police custody for around 40 minutes during which he denied the blasphemy allegations hurled against him.
Swat District Police Officer (DPO) Syed Zaman Shah said that members of the mob had been identified and “efforts for their arrest are underway”.
He said that two first information reports (FIR) had also been registered under the charges of blasphemy and damaging state property, respectively.
The official further said that the suspect was reportedly a drug addict and had been booked in a case of domestic violence on the complaint of his mother.
